Actitud y miedo ante la muerte en adultos mayores

Abstract

Throughout the years the subject of death has been conceived in different ways. These
days, people abstain from talking about it, and a conduct of avoidance can be observed,
manifesting itself in fear and anxiety
.
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the attitude
towards, and fear of, death, in a sample of 170 older adults (
X
=71,02; DT=5,946) of the
city of Cali, Colombia, by means of the Death
Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R), and the
Collet-Lester scale (1969), taking into account the variables of sex, religion and
socioeconomic stratum. The results show significant differences relating to sex on the
scales of fear of own death, avoidance of death, and acceptance of the onset of death.
W
ith regard to socioeconomic stratum, significant dif
ferences were found on the scales
of fear of death and acceptance of its onset, and with regard to religion there are significant
differences only in relation to the avoidance of death. It is concluded that a psychology-
related contribution is important in improving the processes of adaptation to grief, and
reducing the presence pathological grief which occurs in situations which are unexpected
and badly prepared, in this case involving older adults