Death Anxiety in Adolescents: The Contributions of Bereavement and Religiosity

Possible relationships between bereavement and religiosity to death anxiety levels of adolescents were investigated. Scales measuring religiosity, bereavement, and death anxiety were incorporated into one questionnaire. Two hundred and twenty-six adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 participated in the study based in urban and rural private schools within Manitoba. Females exhibited significantly higher death anxiety levels than did males; differences between the death anxiety levels of adolescents having a no-previous-death-experience death and those who had experienced a familial death were not significant; while religiosity levels were significantly higher for students attending religion-based schools, the relationships between measurements of religiosity and death anxiety were weak. Grief due to bereavement was the major factor in determining death anxiety for the adolescent.