Religiosity, Fear of Death and Suicide Acceptability

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The present research was an attempt to test two hypotheses derived from a recently proposed social psychological model of suicide: The acceptability of suicide is a decreasing function of religiosity and fear of death. Questionnaire data were collected for 205 undergraduates at a midwestern university in 1978. The questionnaire included several measures of religiosity, a factor analytic multidimensional fear of death scale, and a suicide acceptability scale. Results, showing that all of the religiosity measures and certain types of fear of death were significantly related to the acceptability of suicide, supported the hypotheses under examination. 1979 The American Association for Suicidology