The Death Attitudes of Older Adults: A Path-Analytical Exploration

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Abstract
The present study examines the effects of contemporaneous circumstances on the death attitudes of older adults. Three causal models “explaining” death attitudes were formulated by abstracting relevant variables from the social and psychological literature on age. These models were subsequently tested on data derived from interviews with 220 elderly male and female respondents residing in an urban area of central Arkansas in the spring of 1974. The data lend little support to any of the three models. In general, less than 13 per cent of the attitudinal variance was accounted for by the factors or events employed. The findings suggest that the present social and psychological environment of the aged plays a less significant role in their attitudes toward death than is presently reflected in social gerontology.

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