Death-is-life-enhancing: Adaptation and validation of the Norwegian Death Mindsets Measure (NDMM)

Abstract

While existing psychological frameworks and their accompanying measures focus on death as anxiety-inducing and debilitating, we highlight an overlooked perspective of death—that death can be a basis for living with more meaning and presence. The present research adapts and validates the Death Mindsets Measure (DMM), which assesses the mindset that “death-is-life-enhancing,” for a Norwegian context. Firstly, we translated the DMM and consulted with Norwegian bereavement experts and bereaved Norwegians on items’ clarity and relevance to cultural perspectives of death. Secondly, we validated the Norwegian DMM (NDMM) on a predominantly bereaved community sample of Norwegians (N = 241). Using structural equation modeling, we confirmed the hierarchical two-factor structure of our measure. The NDMM also demonstrated high internal consistency and discriminant validity with existing death anxiety and death attitudinal measures. Finally, our measure explained additional variance in psychological well-being beyond existing death anxiety and attitudinal measures.

Acknowledgments

We thank Hanna Tandberg, Anita Fjærestad, Atle Dyregrov, Pål Kristensen, Iren Johnsen, and Erik-Edwin Nordström for their support with the Norwegian translations of administered measures. We thank Rolf Gjestad for his consultation on statistical analyses.

Disclosure statement

The authors state no conflicts of interest to report.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

MC received support for this research by the U.S.-Norway Fulbright Research Award and the Lois Roth Foundation.