Measuring fear of death: a reliability study.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Counseling
• Thanatology

Background:

• Growing interest in death education among helping professionals.
• Need for reliable and valid instruments to measure attitudes toward death.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the test-retest reliability of the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale and the Lester Attitude Toward Death Scale.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of these commonly used instruments in counselor trainees.

Main Methods:

• Administered the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale and Lester Attitude Toward Death Scale twice to 20 graduate counselor trainees.
• Utilized a six-week interval between the two administrations.
• Calculated test-retest reliability coefficients for all scales and subscales.

Main Results:

• All scales and subscales demonstrated statistically significant test-retest reliability coefficients.
• The reliability coefficients were found to be in the low to moderate range.
• This suggests potential limitations in the consistency of measurements over time.

Conclusions:

• The Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale and Lester Attitude Toward Death Scale show some degree of reliability.
• However, the low to moderate reliability indicates a need for further refinement or caution in their application.
• Future research should focus on enhancing the psychometric properties of these instruments for accurate assessment of death attitudes.