As the U.S. population ages the number of family caregivers is expected to rise. Family caregivers are a valuable source of informal healthcare services for patients and the public, in terms of reducing healthcare costs. However, research suggests family caregiving is not only financially costly for individuals, but associated with a number of medical and mental health risks, with spouses at higher risk for negative outcomes compared to other family members. Traditional evidence-based therapies for stress in family caregivers have been shown to be minimally efficacious with spouses. No therapies take into account the existential nature of spouse caregiver stress, including the potential nonconscious role of loss of life meaning/purpose and death anxiety. This study of multiple baseline design preliminarily explored the effects of a novel 8-week Terror Management Theory integrated existential psychotherapy (TIE) on stress and nonconscious mechanisms believed to function as buffers for existential anxiety, in five women with spouses receiving cancer treatment. Methods included ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of anxiety and self-esteem states via text message sent three times daily – and intermittent assessment of death anxiety, self-compassion, meaning in life, and quality of life at baseline, intervention, immediate post, and 1-month follow-up. Visual and statistical analyses indicated significant between-phase trend changes in anxiety and self-esteem within participants, although direction of changes varied across participants. Additionally, changes in death anxiety, self-compassion, meaning in life, and quality of life between phases varied across participants in directions inconsistent with intervention aims and participants’ subjective impressions of intervention-related changes. Mixed findings point to the complexity of spouse caregiver psychology and highlight the need for more effective therapies with this population. Results may also guide future research and development of existentially-informed therapies.

The aim of this study was to examine whether and how being committed to a close romantic relationship and gender would affect Turkish young adults&rsquo / death-anxiety. Based on Terror Management Theory (TMT), it was hypothesized that participants who are exposed to separation thoughts from a relationship partner would experience more death&ndash / anxiety than participants who are not exposed to separation thoughts from their relationship partners. In this respect, it was also hypothesized that high commitment to the relationship partner would work as a buffer against death-anxiety and those who have higher commitment to their relationship partners would, therefore, experience less death anxiety than those who have lower commitment to their relationship partners. It was also aimed to investigate whether the effects of commitment to close romantic relationships differ between genders. The effect of neuroticism was also controlled for all participants, so that any difference that is observed between groups would not be due to the effects of neuroticism. One-hundred sixty one participants (age range = 19-38) from Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, Turkey were included in this study. Results suggested no significant main effects of experimental manipulation (i.e. experimental group, control group), commitment level (i.e. high, low) or gender (i.e. female, male) on death-anxiety. A significant interaction effect between commitment level and experimental manipulation was found. According to that, in the experimental group (those who were asked to imagine a separation from their relationship partners) participants with high commitment level were found to experience less death&ndash / anxiety than participants with low commitment level. Also, it was revealed that those who have low commitment to their relationship partners experience more death- anxiety when they were asked to imagine a separation from their relationship partners than when they were not asked to imagine such separation. The same increment in death anxiety was not observed in participants who have high commitment to their relationship partners. The strengths, limitations, and implications of the study were discussed in light of related literature.

This study had four basic purposes: The first purpose was to examine the dimensions of personal meanings of death (PMDS) perceived by university students. Secondly, understanding how these meanings and self reported religiosity contribute to predict death anxiety / third to predict death fear from PMDS and self reported religiosity. Lastly, to investigate gender differences between females and males in terms of personal meanings of death, death anxiety and death fear. The sample consisted of 498 undergraduate students from METU, of whom 271 were male and 227 female. Three instruments-Personal Meanings of Death Scale (PMDS), Templer&rsquo / s Death Anxiety (DAS) and Collet &amp / Lester Fear of Death Scale (FDS)- and a demographic Data Form were administered to participants. Turkish versions of DAS (Ertufan, 2000) and FDS (Ertufan, 2000) were used. Factor analysis was employed to investigate dimensions of Personal Meanings of Death Scale (PMDS) in Turkish university sample. Secondly, t-test was conducted to investigate gender differences in terms of personal meanings of death, death anxiety and death fear. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate how Personal Meanings of Death and self reported religiosity predicted death anxiety and death fear of Turkish University students. Results of the factor analysis of PMDS revealed three factors, extinction, afterlife, motivation/legacy. Results indicated that there was significant gender differences in terms of &ldquo / extinction&rdquo / dimension of death, females had significantly higher mean scores on &ldquo / extinction&rdquo / dimension than males. Additionally, there was significant gender difference in terms of death anxiety and death fear, in that, females had higher scores on both death anxiety and death fear. Results of stepwise regression analysis indicated that extinction is the main predictor of both death anxiety and death fear.

Bakgrund   Sedan mitten av 1990-talet har dödligheten av hjärtinfarkt halverats tack vare forskning kring hjärt- och kärlsjukdomar. Då flera studier visar att många patienter som överlever en hjärtinfarkt upplever lågt välbefinnande behöver dessa stöd i sin återhämtningsprocess. Syfte Syftet var att belysa betydelsefulla faktorer vid bemötandet av patienter under återhämtningsprocessen efter hjärtinfarkt, detta ur ett patientperspektiv. Metod   En litteraturstudie har gjorts utifrån tio kvalitativt vetenskapliga artiklar  hämtade från databaserna Cinahl och PubMed. Efter att kritiskt ha granskat artiklarnas resultat sammanfördes dessa i en översiktstabell. Utifrån detta identifierades återkommande nyckelord, vilka alla svarade på syftet, för att därefter sammanställas under fem kategorier.                              Resultat  De fem kategorier som framkom är: Kunskap och information, Acceptans och hanteringsstrategier, Den upplevda kroppen, Goda sociala relationer och Existentiell mening. Resultatet visar att patienter som överlevt en hjärtinfarkt är i stort behov av relevant kunskap och information, såväl verbal som skriftlig sådan. Även acceptans är väsentligt liksom möjligheten att skapa strategier för att kunna hantera den förändrade livssituationen. Genom familj och vänner men även genom medpatienter med liknande upplevelser visar sig goda sociala relationer ha stor betydelse för patienterna. Slutligen visar resultatet hur känslan av hopp och existentiell mening är ett viktigt stöd för en positiv återhämtningsprocess. Diskussion Diskussionen har berört de fem kategorierna utifrån såväl tidigare relevant forskning som Antonovskys teoribildning om Känsla av sammanhang, KASAM. Sjuksköterskor kan bidra till en god återhämtningsprocess genom att öka patienters kunskap och stärka förmågan att acceptera för att de ska kunna få en ökad förståelse och begriplighet för sitt aktuella hälsotillstånd. Verktyg och strategier för livsstilsförändringar bör erbjudas vilket kan underlätta för patienterna att kunna hantera sin situation. Dessutom ska sjuksköterskan inge stöd och hopp för att öka känslan av meningsfullhet. / Background  Thanks to cardiovascular science, myocardial infarction has been halved by fifty percent since the 1990’s. However, many studies show that the majority of the ones who survive from a myocardial infarction experience low levels of wellbeing why support is needed in the process of recovery. Aim The aim of this study was to illuminate significant factors in the encounter of patients recovering from a myocardial infarction, from a patient’s perspective Methods  A literature review was made based on ten qualitative, scientific articles retrieved from the databases Cinahl and PubMed. The contents of the                     articles were critically reviewed and put together in an overview table. Accordingly to the results of the studies significant keywords were identified and compiled into five categories. Results The five categories is: Knowledge and information, Acceptance and strategies, Experience of the body, Significant social relations and Existential meanings. The findings show that patients who survives a myocardial infarction is in great need of relevant knowledge and information, both verbally and in writing. Acceptance and strategies is important to handle the life changing factors. The result shows that social relations like family and friends, as well as other patients with similar experiences, also has a significant impact on the patients. Finally, hope and the experience of living a meaningful life is an important support in a positive process of recovery. Discussions The five categories have been discussed by previous, significant science and the theoretical base Sense of coherence, by Antonovsky. To achieve a positive process of recovery nurses can help patients by increasing their knowledge and strengthening their ability to accept and understand the new state of health. Life changing tools and coping strategies should be provided by nurses as well as giving hope and support to facilitate the situation and increase the experience of a meaningful life.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Current research on medical students' death experiences is either outdated or produces conflicting results. This research aims to address these issues by analyzing in-depth interviews in order to explore how medical students view and cope view death. The sample consists of twenty third and fourth year students attending a large Midwestern medical school. Grounded theory analyses techniques of line-by-line coding were used to analysis the interviews. The study revealed that students predominantly cope with patient death by talking and that contrary to much of the findings of previous research concerning medical socialization and physicians, students do not always view death as a failure. Beyond the students' death experiences, the study also captured students' perceptions and reactions towards various socialization stages in their medical careers, such as gross anatomy lab. Student beliefs as to what constitutes a good and bad death are also explored as well as their attitudes towards physician assisted suicide. Although these findings are not generalizable to any medical student population, they do provide important qualitative information as to how medical students experience and cope with death.

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Previous research has found a correlation between death anxiety and self esteem. Researchers have found that both self-esteem and death anxiety play a significant role in an individual's behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate a correlation, if any, between death anxiety and self esteem using death related scenarios. It was hypothesized the high death anxiety groups will have lower self-esteem than the low death anxiety group, and that the low self-esteem group will have higher death anxiety than the high self-esteem group. Results of an ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between the high death anxiety group and low death anxiety group concerning self-esteem. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference between the low self-esteem group and the high self-esteem group concerning death anxiety. Overall it was found that there was significant negative correlation between death anxiety and self-esteem.

The present study examines whether or not a person's anxiety level might be linked to their learning performance. Many studies in the past have examined math and test anxiety, but the present study will examine the effects of death anxiety on learning performance. Individual's anxiety will attempt to be induced through fear of death. Participants were presented a set of four symptoms, similar to Gluck and Bower's 1988 category learning study. The participants were asked whether or not they think the symptoms of the patient are positive for COVID-19 or positive for the flu. The hypothesis was that there would be a negative correlation between death anxiety and learning performance (i.e. participants who score high in death anxiety will score with lower accuracy in the learning task). The signal detection model was used to analyze the data for accuracy levels, the ability to discriminate between categories (d'), and the response bias towards COVID-19 (β). The present study found results to support the hypothesis that high death anxiety caused lower performance levels. Results found that death anxiety is a predictor of classification of bias towards a more serious disease in classification. This bias seems to be unrelated to state anxiety, or STAI scores. The signal detection model indicates a predicted effect on discriminability index, which negatively correlated to pre-experiment death anxiety levels. Additionally, although the predicted response bias showed up in the data, it was not correlated with death anxiety levels. There was also no relation to political affiliation, which was thought to bias beliefs about COVID-19.