Assessing the Relationship Between Religious Beliefs and Death Anxiety: An Explorative Study

TL;DR

This study explores how religious beliefs and psychological well-being relate to death anxiety, finding that higher well-being may actually increase death anxiety.

Contribution

The study introduces an interreligious perspective and reports a novel positive correlation between psychological well-being and death anxiety.

Findings

Higher psychological well-being was found to predict higher levels of death anxiety.

The study suggests that individuals with greater well-being may engage more with thoughts about mortality.

Unexpected findings challenge existing theories on death anxiety and coping mechanisms.

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationship between death anxiety, religiosity, and psychological well-being from an interreligious perspective, addressing a notable gap in existing literature that primarily focuses on Christian populations. Data were collected through self-report measures from 114 primarily undergraduate college students to assess correlations among death anxiety, psychological well-being, religious coping, private religious practices, religious support, and belief in an afterlife. Contrary to prior research linking higher death anxiety with lower psychological well-being, this study found a significant positive correlation, indicating that higher psychological well-being predicts higher levels of death anxiety. These unexpected findings may suggest that individuals with greater psychological well-being might engage more frequently and openly with thoughts about mortality, potentially interpreting death anxiety as a manageable stressor. The implications of these results highlight a need to revisit theoretical frameworks regarding death anxiety and coping mechanisms. Future research should utilize larger, more diverse samples, and combine objective and self-report methodologies to clarify the complexities identified in this relationship, ultimately informing better clinical practices and educational programs addressing existential concerns.