Effectiveness of a lesson series on death and dying in changing Adolescents' death anxiety and attitudes toward older adults

Abstract

The impact of a two-week study of death and dying on the death anxiety and attitudes toward older persons was determined for a group of students from eight North Carolina high schools. In addition, 13 personal and situational variables were investigated to determine their relationship to pretest levels of death anxiety and attitudes toward older persons. A total of 323 were in the experimental groups and 152 in the control groups. The pretest adolescents' levels of death anxiety were moderately high; however, the attitudes toward older persons were positive. Both groups evidenced a small decrease in death anxiety and a slight change in attitudes toward older persons in a negative direction. None of these changes were statistically significant. The respondents' sex, last personal involvement with death, and school they attended were significantly related to death anxiety. Religious preference, grade in school, race, and first involvement with death were related to pretest attitudes toward older adults.