Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Setup and Execution of the Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice Death Notification Curriculum
Published on: August 5, 2020
Attachment styles and empathy in trainee nurses: the mediating and moderating roles of attitudes toward death
Ting Wei1, Meiyi Guo2, Huanle Jin1
1School of Nursing, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
Aim:
A growing body of evidence has shown that attachment styles and death attitudes have a significant impact on empathy. This study aimed to explore the precise role of death attitudes in the relationship between attachment styles and empathy levels among trainee nurses.
Methods:
A total of 626 Chinese trainee nurses with different attachment types were enrolled, and their attachment styles, death attitudes, and empathy levels were assessed using the Revised Adult Attachment Scale, the Death Attitude Profile-Revised, and the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Healthy Professionals, and finally, data from 566 participants were included for statistical analysis.
Results:
We found that among trainee nurses with secure attachment type, fear of death, approach acceptance, escape acceptance, and neutral acceptance (-) mediated the relationships between attachment-related avoidance/anxiety and their overall empathy levels and all its dimensions; in the preoccupied type, only neutral acceptance (-) mediated the relationships between attachment-related avoidance and their overall empathy levels and compassionate care; and in the fearful type, only fear of death mediated the relationship between attachment-related avoidance and compassionate care. Furthermore, in the secure type, neutral acceptance attenuated the negative predictions of attachment-related avoidance on overall empathy level and perspective taking.
Conclusion:
Attitudes toward death played different mediating and moderating roles in the relationship between attachment styles and empathy among trainee nurses with different attachment types. In addition to acculturated empathy-specific training, targeted education related to death for trainee nurses with different attachment types is needed to prevent their compassion fatigue.
More Related Videos
06:42Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
09:52Setting Up a Stroke Team Algorithm and Conducting Simulation-based Training in the Emergency Department - A Practical Guide
Published on: January 15, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Ethical Issues
Ethical Concerns in Healthcare:
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Empathy
Kubler Ross's Stages of Dying
In denial, individuals reject the reality of their condition, often thinking, "This isn't true; I feel fine," as a way to protect themselves from...
Obedience
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types