death anxiety

The purpose of the present study was to predict self-efficacy of women with breast cancer based on quality of life, religious orientation, resilience, death anxiety, psychological hardiness and perceived social support. The research method was descriptive and regression type. The statistical population in this study included all patients with breast cancer referring to Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini and Milad hospitals in Tehran in 2018. Purposeful sampling method was used to select the sample. In this way, 300 patients with breast cancer patients were selected based on the criteria for entering and leaving the research. The research tool was a general self-efficacy questionnaire of Sherer et al. (1982), multi-dimensional perceived social support questionnaire (Zimt et al., 1989), Allport Religious Orientation (1967), Kobasa Psychological Hardiness Questionnaire (1979), Templar's Death Anxiety Scale (1970) ), The Conor-Davidson Resilience Questionnaire (2003) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (1996). Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results of data analysis showed that factors of quality of life, religious orientation, resilience, death anxiety, psychological hardiness and perceived social support have 21% ability to predict self-efficacy. The factors of quality of life, resilience, psychological hardiness and social support with self-efficacy are positive at 5% confidence level, and the positivity of these coefficients actually indicates that increasing these factors increases self-efficacy (p <0.05). Death anxiety also has a significant negative correlation with self-efficacy (p <0.05).

Objective: This study aimed to determine the fit of a structural model of death anxiety and self-acceptance based on psychological flexibility and differentiation, with the mediating role of self-compassion in the elderly. Methods and Materials: The research method was fundamental, descriptive, and correlational in nature. The statistical population consisted of all individuals aged 60 years and above residing in daily elderly care centers in Nowshahr and Chalous counties from February 2024 to August 2024 (N = 232). Due to the limited size of the population, a census method was used, and research questionnaires were distributed to all members of the population. Ultimately, due to damaged or incomplete questionnaires, data from 215 questionnaires were analyzed (n = 215). The research instruments included the Templer Death Anxiety Scale (1970), the Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire by Chamberlain and Haaga (2001), the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (Bond et al., 2007), the Differentiation of Self Inventory by Skowron and Friedlander (1998), and Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale (2003). Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 26 and LISREL 8 software. Findings: Pearson correlation analysis indicated a positive and significant relationship between differentiation and self-compassion (r = 0.645, p < .01); a negative and significant relationship between differentiation and death anxiety (r = -0.411, p < .01); a positive and significant relationship between differentiation and self-acceptance (r = 0.700, p < .01); a negative and significant relationship between self-compassion and death anxiety (r = -0.352, p < .01); and a positive and significant relationship between self-compassion and self-acceptance (r = 0.846, p < .01). Path analysis revealed that the indirect path from differentiation to death anxiety through the mediating role of self-compassion was statistically significant (β = -0.629, p < .01). Furthermore, the indirect path from differentiation to self-acceptance through self-compassion was also statistically significant (β = 0.861, p < .01). Conclusion: Thus, the structural model of death anxiety and self-acceptance based on differentiation with the mediating role of self-compassion demonstrated a good fit among elderly individuals residing in daily care centers in Nowshahr and Chalous. These findings may serve as a basis for developing comprehensive therapeutic models to enhance psychological well-being among the elderly. Keywords: Death Anxiety, Self-Acceptance, Differentiation, Self-Compassion, Elderly.