The role of age in death attitudes

Abstract One-hour interviews on death, dying, and bereavement were conducted with 434 adults in the greater Los Angeles area; respondents were approximately equally divided among four ethnic groups, among men and women, and among three age categories. Social class differences among ethnic groups were reduced but not fully eliminated through sampling techniques. The role of age was particularly important. The elderly not only had encountered significantly more death and attended significantly more funerals but they also thought more often about their own death and dying. Nonetheless, older persons were least likely to indicate fear of their own death. By and large, the young adults were at the opposite end of the continuum on most of the survey questions asked, while the middle-aged were intermediate. These results support other findings that older persons are more accepting of death in general and their own death in particular than are younger persons. Data on numerous other death-related issues are reported.