Religiosity and Death Distress in Arabic College Students

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between religiosity and death distress (death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession) among a sample (N = 570) of Egyptian women nursing undergraduates, mainly Muslims. Their ages ranged from 17 to 25. The correlations between religiosity and both death anxiety and death depression were significant and negative, whereas the correlation between religiosity and death obsession was not. Significant, positive and high correlations were found between the different scales of death distress. Factor analysis of all the correlations yielded a single, salient, and bipolar factor labeled 'death distress versus religiosity.' It was argued that different situational variables may have had influenced the conceptual relationship between religiosity and death distress, including the young ages of the present sample.