Adolescent-Parent Death Attitude Resemblance in Kuwaiti and Sudanese Families

Abstract

The present study determined the family resemblance in death anxiety and death depression in Kuwait and in the Sudan. There were moderate correlations between Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970) and Death Depression Scale (Templer, Lavoie, Chalgujian, & Thomas-Dobson, 1990) scores of adolescents and their parents and between the scores of the mothers and fathers. The correlations tended to be higher in death depression than in death anxiety, and it was speculated that such may not have been found if the more recently constructed Death Depression Scale-Revised (Templer et al., 2002) had been used. The present findings mesh with family resemblance death attitude research in the United States and in the Philippines in indicating a transmission of death attitude in the family context. Differences in the pattern of correlations were interpreted in terms of cultural differences.