Death anxiety, self-esteem, and locus of control of families belonging to a selected fundamentalist religious organization.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of parents and their children toward death anxiety, self-esteem, and locus of control. These family units were members in good standing of a fundamentalist church. The research was done primarily to determine if a certain group of Christians held the same attitudes about death, themselves, and if they felt their lives were controlled by external or internal forces, than other populations. A sample of 168 subjects were used in this study which consisted of 41 adult males, 51 adult females, 31 male children and 45 female children. Three separate instruments were utilized to measure their attitudes. These three instuments were the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), the Texas Social Behavior Inventory-Form A (TSBI-A) and the Reid-Ware Three Factor Locus of Control (I-E). Each instrument was compiled into a booklet and were administered in each residential setting of the participants. Since children (ages 12-18) were used, all subjects were asked to mark their responses in the booklet rather than use the separate answer sheet. On their DAS scores all females scored significantly higher than the all male group with means of 6.07 and 4.86 respectively. Adult males, with the lowest mean of 3.63, had the least fear of death when compared to adult females, male and female children. The male children in this sample had the greatest fear of death. It was observed that children had a greater fear of death than did the parental group. A study of the results of the TSBI-A (self-esteem) revealed that a mean of 42.68 for adult males and a mean of 42.10 for adult females were higher than the norm data of 40.45 for males and 40.64 for females. Parents scored significantly higher on the TSBI-A than did the children. On the I-E scales it was found that adult females felt more controlled by fate, chance and/or luck (Fatalism) than did the adult males. Adult males felt the least controlled by external forces than any of the four groups. The Social System Factor of the I-E revealed that there was a significant difference between female children and the adult males. Adult males in this fundamentalist group felt the least controlled by organizations, institutions, political influences and so forth. On the Self-Control Factor, means ranged from a low of 2.05 (adult males) to a high of 2.78 (female children). No significant differences were found among these four groups.