Expectations in the Communication About Death and Dying: Development and Initial Validation of the End-of-Life Conversations – Expectations Scale

Abstract

End-of-life (EOL) conversations with relatives or significant others are often avoided. One reason can be negative expectations regarding these conversations. The present study was conducted to develop and initially validate the End-of-Life Conversations – Expectations Scale (EOLC-E). An exploratory factor analysis (N = 307) resulted in a 20-item version with three distinct dimensions: expected own emotional burden (α =.92), expected other person’s emotional burden (α =.94) and communication self-efficacy (α =.89). The EOLC-E total score correlated significantly with communication apprehension about death (r =.62), fear of death (r =.58), death avoidance (r =.52) as well as readiness for end-of-life conversations (r = −.38) and occurrence of previous conversations (r = −.29). Results suggest that the EOLC-E is a reliable and valid instrument to assess death and dying communication expectations. This measure has utility in communication research focusing on optimizing expectations and increasing EOL communication.