Death Anxiety Among Older Adults as a Function of the Christian Faith With Specific Reference to the Experience of Being Born Again

Sixty male and female subjects between the ages of 60 to 84 years were administered three questionnaires concerning death anxiety, religiosity, and life satisfaction. Data were collected and analyzed by Pearson r correlation as well as by multiple regression analysis. Findings included those subjects considering themselves to be born again Christians scored significantly lower on the death anxiety scale than did those respondents considering themselves Christian, but not born again. Subjects considering themselves to be non-Christian/Other did not correlate significantly with death anxiety. Life satisfaction was not a significant predictor of death anxiety. Subjects indicating more conservative/fundamentalist denominational affiliations indicated less death anxiety than respondents with more liberal affiliations. This suggests the multidimensional nature of religiosity and the need for precision in instruments assessing this variable