Student persistence at postsecondary schools has declined to around 50% during the past decade, indicating a problem that a majority of students are not completing their higher educational goals in the United States. An independent mortuary school exemplified this problem with recent persistence trends for campus-based students at 43.8%. The…

Research has consistently reported that social support from family, friends, and colleagues is an important factor in the bereaved person's ability to cope after the loss of a loved one. This study used a Theory of Planned Behavior framework to identify those factors that predict a person's intention to interact with, and support, a grieving…

This research was undertaken to explore gender, religiosity, perceived time-left-to-live and the interactions between these variables as predictors of fear of death in 144 Atlantic Canadian students using the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS). Predictions about cause, age, marital status, and place of death were also derived from the…

The objective of the study was to compare various predictors of death obsession (i.e., anxiety, optimism, pessimism), and self-ratings of religiosity, physical health, mental health, happiness, and satisfaction with life, among 2 samples of college students recruited from two different cultures: Kuwait (n = 271) and United Kingdom (n = 205). The…

Investigated key variables associated with death anxiety and belief in afterlife among college students (N=181). Results supported the notion that belief in afterlife is primarily a function of religion and not directly a correlate of fear of death. Church attendance was found to be significantly related to both. (JAC)

Administered Templer Death Anxiety Scale and Mood Scale to 52 college students. Subjects were shown neutral videotape, videotape of death scenes, and neutral videotape. Before and after each videotape, participants completed Mood Scale. Found initial level of death anxiety to be significant predictor of changes in, and overall levels of,…

Tested Bugen's Coping with Death Scale. Individuals who had written wills, planned estates and funerals, and signed organ donor cards scored higher on the Coping with Death Scale. Because Coping with Death scores were more consistently different in those who prepared for death, this scale may help in efforts to predict those who will engage in…

The California Psychological Inventory (CPI), the Levanthal Anxiety Scale, the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), and a questionnaire determining various demographic and situational variables relevant to death anxiety were administered to college students (N=180). Percentage of the variance of death anxiety accounted for by each predictor variable…

Factor analysis of scores of 458 college students on the Aging Sexuality Knowledge and Attitude Scale revealed a two-factor structure. Religious affiliation and ethnicity uniquely predicted permissive/restrictive attitudes. Death anxiety and salience of elderly sexuality uniquely predicted empathic/indifferent attitudes. Students of different ages…

A criterion composed of total scores from the Handal Fear of Death Scale and the Templer Death Anxiety Scale was predicated using scores from the Personal Experience Check List (a scale of past altered states experiences). Results are discussed as related to previous work with death anxiety. (Author)

To examine the eating-related cognitions and behaviors of college-age women who had experienced parental death, parental divorce, or neither loss condition, we recruited 48 women from science and social science departments at a state university in the Southeast. All participants completed the Mizes Anorectic Cognitions Scale (MAC) and the Bulimia…

Demonstrates that within a group of highly actualized individuals, the degree to which "own death" is integrated into constructs of self is a far more powerful predictor of fear of death than actualization. Findings suggest that actualization and integration are independent in their overall effect on fear of death. (Author)