Death distress constructs: A preliminary empirical examination of the Farsi form in nurses: A brief note

Rebuilding wellbeing: Understanding the role of self-criticism, anger rumination, and death distress after the February 6, 2023, Türkiye Earthquake

This study investigated self-criticism, anger rumination, and death distress in wellbeing after one of the most devastating natural disasters of this century. The study included 399 participants from 56 different cities across Türkiye. Participants were from 3 groups: those who themselves or one of their nuclear families are earthquake survivors (group 1), those who had a loved one other than a nuclear family member who was an earthquake survivor (group 2), and those who were deeply affected by the earthquake through media networks (group 3). Results showed that women experienced higher death distress and anger rumination and lower mental wellbeing compared to men post-earthquake. Individuals in group 1 had significantly lower mental wellbeing and higher death distress than groups 2 and 3. However, the effect size of this significant differentiation depending on earthquake experience was small. Moreover, anger rumination and death distress fully mediated the link between self-criticism and mental wellbeing.

Development and validation of the Earthquake Obsession Scale

Earthquakes are natural disasters that are very destructive and whose timing is unknown. These disasters can have a very negative effect on people's mental health, and their effects can last for many years. This study examined the psychometric properties of a scale to measure earthquake obsession. Data were collected from adults living in different provinces of Türkiye (N = 732), who completed the new scale, Doomscrolling Scale, Death Distress Scale, and Mental Well-Being Scale. The Earthquake Obsession Scale (EOS) had a two-factor structure, good internal consistency reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Correlational analysis revealed that earthquake obsession was positively associated with doomscrolling and death anxiety, and negatively associated with well-being. Mediation analysis indicated that doomscrolling and death distress mediated the relationship between earthquake obsession and well-being. The results emphasized the potential of earthquake obsession to affect daily life negatively and revealed its relationship with psychological variables.

Fear of COVID-19, death depression and death anxiety: Religious coping as a mediator

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the well-being and mental health of populations worldwide. This study sought to examine whether religious coping mediated the relationship between COVID-19-related fear and death distress. We administered an online survey to 390 adult participants (66.15% females; Mage = 30.85 ± 10.19 years) across Turkey. Participants completed a series of questionnaires measuring the fear they had experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, their levels of religious coping and their levels of death anxiety and depression. Our findings revealed that (a) fear of COVID-19 was associated with positive religious coping, negative religious coping, death anxiety and death distress; (b) negative religious coping was associated with death anxiety and depression and (c) negative religious coping mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and death anxiety and depression. These results highlight the detrimental effect of negative religious coping in increasing the adverse effect of the COVID-19 fear on death depression.

Psychological maltreatment, coping flexibility, and death obsession during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-mediation analysis

Recent psychological studies have reported that child maltreatment is a common issue during the COVID-19 pandemic, with negative factor leading to greater risk of occurrence of mental health problems. However, the relationship between psychological maltreatment and psychological factors is complex. Understanding the factors, which may help to provide interventions, is a critical step for mental health providers. This study aims to examine the relationships between psychological maltreatment, coping flexibility, coronavirus anxiety, coronavirus stress, and death distress. We collected data from 394 Turkish young adults (76% male: average age 21.36 ± 2.57 years) during the outbreak of COVID-19. The results of multi-mediation analysis showed that psychological maltreatment was positively related to the death obsession. More importantly, this relationship could be explained through the mediated effects of coping flexibility, coronavirus anxiety, and coronavirus stress. This study highlights the non-negligible role of psychological maltreatment in affecting death obsession and the role of coping flexibility in explaining the psychological influence of maltreatment.

Understanding wellbeing and death obsession of young adults in the context of Coronavirus experiences: Mitigating the effect of mindful awareness

The present study investigated the mediating effect of mindfulness on the association of coronavirus-related suffering and stress with death obsession and subjective wellbeing in young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample of this study was 583 Turkish young adults from a public university in Turkey. They ranged in age between 18 and 40 years (M = 20.97; SD = 2.38). The results showed that coronavirus stress mediated the impact of coronavirus suffering on mindfulness and death obsession. Moreover, greater mindfulness mediated the adverse impacts of coronavirus suffering and stress on young adults' subjective wellbeing.

Death Anxiety, Religiosity and Culture: Implications for Therapeutic Process and Future Research

Death anxiety is a common phenomenon that humans experience. It is multidimensional. There has been an upsurged interest around the discussion on death anxiety across the globe, however, much of the literature focuses on the concept of death anxiety, religiosity, and its role in mental health conditions. Further, studies on death anxiety are scattered and at times disconnected. It is important to review existing literature to get an overview of the current direction in research and understand its relevance to facilitate therapeutic processes. In this scoping review, literature was searched in databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and PsychINFO using key words such as “death anxiety”, “fear of death”, religion”, “culture”, and “psychopathology” combined with Boolean operators to narrow down the search results. The initial search yielded 614 records, of which 546 records were removed based on title review (363), abstract review (94), and full-text review (89). Finally, 68 articles were appraised, narratively synthesized, and thematically presented. Major themes revealed in the literature were theoretical frameworks of death anxiety, religiosity, universality, psychological effects of death anxiety, psychopathology, and religious coping strategies. There is a need to assess client’s death anxiety and address them using religious rituals and coping mechanisms.

Death depression in Egyptian clinical and non-clinical groups

Aim

The main aims of this study were to explore the differences between seven Egyptian clinical and non-clinical samples in death depression, as well as to estimate gender-related differences.

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Methods

The Death Depression Scale (DDS) was administered to seven groups (N = 765) of Egyptian normal (non-clinical) patients, anxiety outpatients, schizophrenic inpatients (men and women) and addicts (men only) in individual sessions.

Results

Anxiety outpatients of both sexes obtained significantly and greatly higher death depression scores than did the other five groups, whereas the male schizophrenics, the male addicts, and the male and female non-clinical groups had the lowest death depression scores. Female schizophrenics obtained a significantly higher death depression scores than did male schizophrenics, addicts and non-clinical participants. Female anxiety outpatients and schizophrenics had higher death depression mean scores than did their male counterparts.

Discussion

The present finding is consistent, in general, with previous studies on death anxiety and death obsession. What applied to death anxiety was consistent also with death depression and death obsession. That is, the death distress concept.

Positivity explains how COVID-19 perceived risk increases death distress and reduces happiness

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has produced an unprecedented impact on all aspects of life, including mental outcomes like death distress. This study examined the mediating effect of positivity on the association between COVID-19 related perceived risk, death distress, and happiness. Participants were 3109 Turkish adults (Mean age = 38.64 ± 10.40) who completed online measures of perceived risk, positivity, death distress, and happiness during the pandemic. Results showed that perceived risk had a significant direct effect on positivity, death distress, and happiness. Positivity had a significant direct effect on death distress and happiness. Mediation analysis indicated that positivity mediated the effect of perceived risk on death distress and happiness. Results suggest that positivity is an important aspect of developing strength-based preventions and interventions aiming to reduce psychological distress and improve happiness.