A Cross-Sectional View of Fear of Death and Dying Among Skydivers

Abstract

The literature lacks a consistent pattern on the relationship between attitudes toward death and dying across occupations and recreational pursuits. The present cross-sectional study categorized a group of individuals engaging in a high-risk recreational activity (i.e., skydivers) on the basis of experience and classified them into student, intermediate, and experts. There were more negative attitudes of death and dying among student skydivers compared with more experienced skydivers. It was also found that expert skydivers had more negative attitudes toward death and dying on some of the measures compared with the intermediate level experienced skydivers. It may be the case that factors such as perceived personal control, overconfidence, and metacognition may be related to these observed differences between the two more experienced groups of skydivers. The possibility of the factors playing a role in skydivers’ attitudes toward death and dying should be taken into consideration in the training programs for skydiving.