Predictors of fear of death and self-mortality : an Atlantic Canadian perspective

Abstract

Despite the ever-increasing body of knowledge about fear of death, death attitudes in Atlantic Canada have rarely been examined. Furthermore, prior research has often not accounted for the impact of interactions between variables that are predictive of death fear. The present study was undertaken to explore fear of death in Atlantic Canada as a function of gender, age, religiosity, perceived time-left-to-live, and the interactions between these variables, using the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS). Predictions about cause, age, marital status and place of death were also derived from the Do-It-Yourself-Death-Certificate as a means of obtaining participants' conceptions surrounding their own deaths. Predictions were compared with actuarial data to determine their accuracy. The sample consisted of 144 university students (111 women and 33 men) age 18 to 57, ( M = 23.6, SD = 7.4 years). Results showed significant main effects for gender, religiosity and age, and significant interaction effects between gender and religiosity, gender and time-left-to-live, age and religiosity, gender, age, and religiosity, and gender, age, religiosity and time-left-to-live, on fear of death. Women were more fearful for significant others and of the dead, whereas men who predicted having greater time-left-to-live had greater fears of the unknown and of experiencing a conscious death. Religious participants expressed greater fears in more MFODS domains than non-religious participants. In addition, younger, more religious participants and older, less religious participants had higher fears of experiencing a premature death. Overall, both men and women made inaccurate death-related predictions when compared to actuarial data. The present findings are discussed in terms of limitations, need for examination of interaction effects of variables predictive of death fear, and implications for death-related issues in Atlantic Canada.