DePaola S J, Neimeyer R A, Lupfer M B, Fiedler J
Department of Psychology, Memphis State University, TN 38152.
Death Stud. 1992 Nov-Dec;16(6):537-55. doi: 10.1080/07481189208252597.
The present project investigated the relationship between death fear and threat, attitudes toward the elderly, and personal anxiety toward one's own aging in a group of 145 nursing home employees and a matched comparison group of 130 individuals who worked in non-death related occupations. Contrary to predictions, nursing home personnel did not have higher levels of death threat when compared to controls; in fact, control group subjects had higher levels of death concern on two dimensions of death fear (fear of the dead and fear of significant others dying). However, the results also indicated that increasing levels of death concern were associated with greater anxiety toward aging, especially in the nursing home sample, and nursing personnel displayed significantly fewer positive attitudes toward the elderly than did controls.
本项目对145名养老院员工以及130名从事与死亡无关职业的配对对照组人员进行了调查，研究死亡恐惧与威胁、对老年人的态度以及对自身衰老的个人焦虑之间的关系。与预测相反，与对照组相比，养老院工作人员并没有更高水平的死亡威胁；事实上，对照组受试者在死亡恐惧的两个维度（对死者的恐惧和对重要他人死亡的恐惧）上有更高水平的死亡担忧。然而，结果还表明，死亡担忧程度的增加与对衰老的更大焦虑相关，尤其是在养老院样本中，而且护理人员对老年人表现出的积极态度明显少于对照组。
