Impact of Life Factors upon Attitudes toward Death

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of life factors on college students' feelings about death. Participants completed a recently validated self-report scale and then were individually interviewed regarding their life experiences related to death. The interview process permitted identification of which life factors had affected death attitudes and the relative importance and specific impact of each factor. Regression analysis suggested that the most important life factor was a significant predictor of the participants' current feelings about death (r = −.51) and that other factors of lower ranked importance did not significantly increase the power of the regression equation. The most important life factors clustered into three categories: Death of Significant Other, Religious Upbringing, and Near-Death Experiences, but these factors tended to have mixed effects across individuals. Results stress the importance of an individualized approach in studying the impact of life factors on the development of death attitudes.