The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance

Abstract

Parishioners (n = 130) of an Episcopal church in New York City participated in a survey to explore the relationship between the religiosity, death acceptance, and death anxiety. Among the four different types of religiosity measured by the Rohrbaugh and Jessor scale, theological religiosity was the only one to have a significant effect on death acceptance and death anxiety. Belief in God’s existence (r = −0.27), and belief in the afterlife (r = −0.25) were both negatively correlated with death anxiety (p < 0.01), and positively correlated with death acceptance (respectively, r = 0.21 and r = 0.22, p < 0.05). The effects remained significant even after controlling for a number of demographic variables using multiple regression procedures. Being a woman was the only demographic variable that was significantly correlated with greater anxiety about death. On average, women displayed significantly higher levels of death anxiety (M = 8.1, SD = 2.8) than men (M = 6.2, SD = 2.9).

Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful to the Parishioners of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, New York City, for their support and for their participation in this project. We also thank the Reverend Canon Andrew J. W. Mullins, Rector of the Church of the Epiphany, and The HealthCare Chaplaincy’s President and CEO, Reverend Dr Walter J. Smith, for the initiative and support that led to this collaboration between The Chaplaincy and the Church of the Epiphany. Finally, we wish to thank the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation for its continuing generous support of The HealthCare Chaplaincy.