Construction of a scale of attitude toward death in adolescence and its validity and reliability

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to construct a scale that measures the multidimensional attitude toward death in adolescence. Based on preliminary open-ended format survey, a scale of attitude toward death consisting of 67 items was constructed. This scale was administered to 1,071 adolescents. Factor analysis with varimax rotation indicated 6 subscales: "fear of death", "intention to live out own life", "meaning of death for life", "underrating of death", "belief in existence of afterlife", "choice of death-of-body/death-of-mind". For these subscales, the coefficients of alpha ranged from .60 to .84, and the coefficients of test-retest reliability with a three-week interval ranged from .68 to .93. The validity of the subscales was investigated through the relations with Templer's Death Anxiety Scale and several developmental indices.