The structure and measurement of death obsession

A new concept of death obsession has been introduced and its scale has been constructed. The scale contains 15 items with a Likert-type format. It has good face, construct, concurrent and discriminant validity, as well as good internal consistency and stability. Three factors were disclosed: death rumination, death domination and death idea repetition. It correlated positively with death anxiety, death depression, general obsession. general anxiety, and general depression. Two high-loaded factors were extracted: death distress and general neurosis. The Death Obsession Scale correlated positively with neuroticism, while its correlation with extraversion was not significant. There were no gender differences between the mean scores. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.