Use of the threat index with family members Waiting during surgery

Abstract

We describe the use of the 40-item Threat index (TI) with family members (N = 206) of surgical patients who also completed Templer's (1970) Death Anxiety Scale, the Death-of-Self and Dying-of-Self subscales of the Collett-Lester (1969) Fear of Death Scale, and the Death Acceptance subscale of Reker and Peacock's (1992) Life Attitude Profile-Revised. Word sets from the 40-item TI that are part of the 25- and 7-item versions of the TI produced strong alphas and correlatians to their parent instrument. Regression analyses indicated that selftideal-self scores and previous experience as a hospital patient were significant associated with TI scores. We conclude that if the time available for completion and scoring of the TI is limited, the shorter versions can be used, although their alpha strengths are slightly lower than that of the full TI and the respondent's age influences the scores.