Prost Stephanie Grace, Stewart Warren, Novisky Meghan A, Parkkila Mary-Louise
Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton BN2 4AT, UK.
Soc Sci. 2025 Mar;14(3). doi: 10.3390/socsci14030126. Epub 2025 Feb 21.
Death anxiety is marked by worrisome thoughts and feelings surrounding death. It can influence health care workers' performance and increase workforce attrition, yet no study has examined death anxiety among persons who provide peer care in the correctional system.
Two small samples of peer caregivers working in two US prisons were surveyed ( = 27). Using the 15-item Death Anxiety Scale, we first described death anxiety using descriptive statistics. We examined gender disparities using an independent sample t-test and explored the associations between death anxiety, caregiver burden, and depression using Kendalls' Tau-b.
Average death anxiety for the sample was 6.30 (SD = 2.88) and while women reported greater death anxiety than men, (M = 6.82, SD = 2.77; M = 5.40, SD = 2.99, respectively), the difference was not significant (t(25) = 1.25, = 0.111). Although death anxiety did not relate to care burden or depression, a significant relationship was found between care burden and depression for peer caregivers in this sample.
This is the first study to examine death anxiety among correctional system peer caregivers. Further research with larger samples, and across multiple jurisdictions and facility types is required as is investigation of the influence of death anxiety on care outcomes.
死亡焦虑的特征是围绕死亡产生的令人担忧的想法和感受。它会影响医护人员的工作表现，并增加劳动力流失率，但尚无研究考察惩教系统中提供同伴护理的人员的死亡焦虑情况。
对在美国两所监狱工作的两个同伴护理人员小样本（n = 27）进行了调查。使用15项死亡焦虑量表，我们首先用描述性统计描述了死亡焦虑情况。我们使用独立样本t检验研究了性别差异，并使用肯德尔tau-b检验探讨了死亡焦虑、护理负担和抑郁之间的关联。
样本的平均死亡焦虑为6.30（标准差 = 2.88），虽然女性报告的死亡焦虑高于男性（分别为M = 6.82，标准差 = 2.77；M = 5.40，标准差 = 2.99），但差异不显著（t(25) = 1.25，p = 0.111）。虽然死亡焦虑与护理负担或抑郁无关，但在该样本中发现同伴护理人员的护理负担与抑郁之间存在显著关系。
这是第一项考察惩教系统同伴护理人员死亡焦虑情况的研究。需要对更大样本、跨多个司法管辖区和设施类型进行进一步研究，同时也需要调查死亡焦虑对护理结果的影响。
