Husain Waqar, Ammar Achraf, Trabelsi Khaled, Jahrami Haitham
Department of Humanities, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad Campus, Park Road, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
Discov Ment Health. 2024 Dec 3;4(1):64. doi: 10.1007/s44192-024-00120-2.
Death anxiety has traditionally been measured without considering religious beliefs related to death, such as afterlife, the grave, and punishment. The present study was aimed at developing and validating a new scale to address this limitation.
The study was carried out in four phases and recruited a total of 2250 conveniently selected participants aged 18-59. Believers' Death Anxiety Scale (BDAS) was developed and validated according to the reputed standards for scale development and validation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. The convergent validity was established by correlating BDAS with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. Discriminant validity was established by correlating BDAS with the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Internal consistency and reliability were assessed through Cronbach's alpha, item-total, and item-scale correlations.
The BDAS consists of fifteen items distributed across five subscales: worry, terror, despair, avoidance, and thoughts. The BDAS exhibited a strong factor structure, with five distinct factors consistently exceeding acceptable factor loadings. Convergent validity was confirmed through positive correlations with depression, anxiety, and stress, while discriminant validity was demonstrated through a significant inverse correlation with life satisfaction. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency and reliability across all phases of testing.
The BDAS emerges as a valuable and innovative instrument for researchers and practitioners seeking to comprehensively assess death anxiety, considering the often-overlooked role of religious dimensions.
传统上测量死亡焦虑时未考虑与死亡相关的宗教信仰，如来世、坟墓和惩罚。本研究旨在开发并验证一种新的量表以解决这一局限性。
该研究分四个阶段进行，共招募了2250名年龄在18 - 59岁之间方便选取的参与者。根据量表开发和验证的著名标准开发并验证了信徒死亡焦虑量表（BDAS）。进行了探索性和验证性因素分析。通过将BDAS与抑郁、焦虑和压力量表相关联来建立收敛效度。通过将BDAS与生活满意度量表相关联来建立区分效度。通过克朗巴哈系数、项目总分和项目量表相关性评估内部一致性和信度。
BDAS由15个项目组成，分布在五个子量表中：担忧、恐惧、绝望、回避和想法。BDAS呈现出强大的因素结构，五个不同因素的因子载荷始终超过可接受水平。通过与抑郁、焦虑和压力的正相关证实了收敛效度，而通过与生活满意度的显著负相关证明了区分效度。该量表在所有测试阶段都表现出出色的内部一致性和信度。
对于寻求全面评估死亡焦虑的研究人员和从业者而言，考虑到宗教维度常常被忽视的作用，BDAS成为一种有价值且创新的工具。
