Death anxiety as related to somatic symptoms in two cultures
Abstract
Two undergraduate samples from Kuwait (52 men, 157 women; M age = 21.2 yr., SD =2.1) and the USA (46 men, 145 women; M age = 22.4 yr., SD = 5.3) answered the Somatic Symptoms Inventory, the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, and the Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale. The Kuwaiti sample obtained significantly higher mean scores on all the scales than the American sample. Scores on the Somatic Symptoms Inventory were positively correlated with Death Anxiety scores, indicating that people who enjoy good physical health are less concerned with death.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Older people do not typically report higher death anxiety than younger people.
“older people do not typically report higher death anxiety than younger people”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
More psychological problems are associated with higher levels of death anxiety.
“more psychological problems are associated with higher levels of death anxiety”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
Higher education and socioeconomic status are moderately associated with lower death anxiety.
“higher education and socioeconomic status are moderately associated with lower death anxiety”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
Females typically report higher death anxiety than males.
“females typically report higher death anxiety than males”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
Good physical health is associated with lower death anxiety.
“good physical health is associated with lower death anxiety”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
Higher religious beliefs and practices are not necessarily associated with lower death anxiety.
“higher religious beliefs and practices are not necessarily associated with lower death anxiety”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009
Cites
THE COLLETT-LESTER FEAR OF DEATH SCALE: A CORRECTION
Lester, D., & Abdel‐Khalek, A. M. (2003) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481180302873 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Self-citationAbdel‐Khalek, A. M. (2004) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481180490437572 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Collett–Lester Fear of Death Scale.
Lester, D. (1994) · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Self-citation(1976) · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Anxiety levels in east and west: 18 arab countries, germany, spain, U.K., and U.S.A.
Abdel-Khalek, A. (2007) · European Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2007.01.894 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct
Iverach, L., Menzies, R. G., & Menzies, R. E. (2014) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2014.09.002 · Cited by 459 · see citing works
“Both inventories have been used to evaluate death anxiety in non-clinical populations (Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 2009; Gilliland & Templer, 1985; Peal, Handal, & Gilner, 1981; Russac, Gatliff, Reece, & Spottswood, 2007; Testa, 1981; White, Gilner, Handal, & Napoli, 1983), and clinical populations of…”
BackgroundMa-Kellams, C. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01379 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
The factors contributing to death anxiety in cancer patients
Gonen, G., Kaymak, S. U., Cankurtaran, E. S., Karslioglu, E. H., Ozalp, E., & Soygur, H. (2012) · Journal of Psychosocial Oncology · doi:10.1080/07347332.2012.664260 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
A systematic review of the psychometric properties of death anxiety self-report measures
Zuccala, M., Menzies, R. E., Hunt, C. J., & Abbott, M. J. (2019) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481187.2019.1699203 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Dursun, P., Alyağut, P., & Yılmaz, I. (2022) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-02695-3 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
de Stegge, B. M. A., Tak, L. M., Rosmalen, J. G. M., & Voshaar, R. C. O. (2018) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2018.10.002 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Al‐Fayez, G., & OHAERI, J. U. (2011) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-11-71 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Validation of Collett-Lester's Fear of Death Scale in a sample of nursing students
Venegas, M. E., Alvarado, O. S., & Barriga, O. A. (2011) · Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem · doi:10.1590/s0104-11692011000500015 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Attitudes of Older Chinese Patients Toward Death and Dying
Chen, Q., Flaherty, J., Guo, J.-H., Zhou, Y., Zhang, X.-M., & Hu, X.-Y. (2017) · Journal of Palliative Medicine · doi:10.1089/jpm.2017.0014 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Death Anxiety in Muslim Iranians: A Comparison Between Youths, Middle Adults, and Late Adults
Dadfar, M., Lester, D., Abdel‐Khalek, A. M., & Ron, P. (2018) · Illness Crisis & Loss · doi:10.1177/1054137318790080 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Self-citationDadfar, M., Lester, D., & Bahrami, F. (2016) · Journal of Aging Research · doi:10.1155/2016/2906857 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Self-citationDadfar, M., & Lester, D. (2019) · Nursing Open · doi:10.1002/nop2.390 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Self-citationSarıçiçek, A., Gülseren, Ş., Sarikaya, Ö. Ö., & Özen, Ç. (2015) · Nöro Psikiyatri Arşivi · doi:10.5152/npa.2015.8820 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Özdemir, S., Kahraman, S., & Ertufan, H. (2019) · OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · doi:10.1177/0030222819885781 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
The Psychometric Parameters of the Farsi Form of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety
Dadfar, M., Abdel‐Khalek, A. M., Lester, D., & Vahid, M. K. A. (2017) · The Scientific World JOURNAL · doi:10.1155/2017/7468217 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationDeath Concern and Death Obsession in Iranian Nurses
Dadfar, M., & Lester, D. (2015) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.2466/12.13.pr0.116k30w5 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Self-citationDeath Anxiety and Attitudes towards Death in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: An Exploratory Study
Francalancia, J., Mavrogiorgou, P., Juckel, G., Mitrovic, T., Kuhle, J., Naegelin, Y., Kappos, L., & Calabrese, P. (2021) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci11080964 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“Those results were found by Abdel-Khalek who repeatedly conducted studies on death anxiety in healthy and mentally ill patients [13].”
ResultMondragón-Sánchez, E. J., Landeros-Olvera, E., & Pérez-Noriega, E. (2020) · Medunab · doi:10.29375/01237047.3723 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Dadfar, M., & Bahrami, F. (2016) · The Scientific World JOURNAL · doi:10.1155/2016/9457041 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Júnior, C. R. O., Machado, D. R., Santos, F. S., da Silva, J. V., & Domingues, E. A. R. (2018) · Revista de Pesquisa Cuidado é Fundamental Online · doi:10.9789/2175-5361.2018.v10i1.210-216 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Song, W., Liu, M., Ye, T., Wang, D., Yuan, Q., Li, F., Wang, Q., & Ma, Y. (2024) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2024.1416173 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Attachment to God as a predictor of death distress among Muslims
Mohammadzadeh, A., & Oraki, M. (2018) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-018-9934-3 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
An Examination of the Relationship Between Death Anxiety, Optimism, Depression, and Anxiety
Brown, A. G. (2011) · ThinkTech (Texas Tech University) · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The Relationship Between Death Depression and Death Anxiety with Coping Style Among CHD Patients
Hassankhani, H., Rashidi, K., Rahmani, A., Abdullahzadeh, F., Golmohammadi, A., Ozairi, S., & Ayubi, E. (2016) · Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.17795/ijpbs-4062 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Zhang, Y., Zhou, S., Yang, C., Cai, X., Yang, M., Zhou, B., & Bai, X. (2025) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-025-06551-y · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Effect of Sociodemographic Variables on Health Anxiety and Death Anxiety Levels in COVID-19 Pandemic
ALİOĞULLARI, A., Sönmez, A. Ö., & Erdoğan, A. (2022) · Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry · doi:10.18863/pgy.1009121 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety.
Qiu, Q., Zhang, S., Lin, X., Ban, C., Yang, H., Liu, Z., Wang, J., Wang, T., Xiao, S., Abdel‐Khalek, A. M., et al. (2016) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · doi:10.11919/j.issn.1002-0829.216033 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citationPsychometric Characteristics of the Persian Version of the Revised Fear of Personal Death Scale
Saffarzadeh, A., Rahiminezhad, A., Ehsan, H. B., Noferesti, A., Shahmansouri, N., & Salehi, K. (2023) · Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.5812/ijpbs-129657 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
The World Still Cries for Meaning: Are We Still Listening?
Evans, W. F. (2016) · Logotherapy and existential analysis: proceedings of the Viktor Frankl Institute Vienna · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-29424-7_25 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Health anxiety and death anxiety: The role of cyberchondria and social aspirations
Macovei, M., & Măirean, C. (2025) · Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1177/13591053251341191 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Lester, D.
- Affiliations
- Kuwait University
- Stockton University (US)
- ORCID
- Lester, David
- Venue
- Psychological Reports
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-10
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 409-410
- ISSN
- 0033-2941 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-691X
- OpenAlex
- W2041631659
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Reports (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- fear of death, somatic symptoms, cross-cultural comparison, physical health
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety, Attitude to Death, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Female, Humans, Kuwait, Male, Personality Inventory, Psychometrics, Somatoform Disorders, United States, Reproducibility of Results, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
