# 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.

## Key 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.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12763253