The existential dimension of the pandemic: Death attitudes, personal worldview, and coronavirus anxiety

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey to investigate relationships between coronavirus anxiety, individual death attitudes, and personal worldview was conducted among 202 German-speaking adults in Central Europe. Results indicated that death anxiety significantly predicts coronavirus anxiety beyond sociodemographic variables. Women reported higher coronavirus anxiety than men. Against expectations, dimensions of personal worldview were hardly related to coronavirus anxiety. In contrast, we found evidence for a curvilinear relationship between religiosity as well as atheism and negative death attitudes. Our study contributes to recent discussions about death anxiety as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology and yields important implications for psychosocial support in the current pandemic.