DEATH ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND REPRESSION-SENSITIZATION IN ONCOLOGY AND OBSTETRIC NURSES (DYING).
Contributors: California School Of Professional Psychology - San Diego.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 141
Subjects: Psychology, Clinical.
Description: The literature on death and dying has suggested that exposure to death is a threatening stimulus which may provoke death anxious feelings and that the defense mechanisms of denial and repression are used to counter this anxiety about death. It was hypothesized that nurses with high exposure to death in a work setting would differ from nurses without this exposure on measures of death anxiety, depression and repression-sensitization. It was further hypothesized that there would be a correlation between death anxiety and depression, and death anxiety and repression-sensitization scores. Lastly, it was hypothesized that of the three variables, death anxiety, work setting and repression-sensitization, the work setting variable would be the strongest predictor of depression.

The subjects in this study were 114 nurses from four general hospitals which have both Obstetric and Oncology units. The first group (N = 51) was comprised of Oncology nurses ranging in age from 23 to 55 years (mean = 34 years) with an average time in position of 42.9 months. The second group (N = 63) consisted of nurses working on Labor and Delivery, Well Baby and Post-partum sections of the Obstetric unit. Age ranged from 23 to 52 years (mean = 37.8 years) and average time in position was 89 months. The nurses completed Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Repression-Sensitization Scale (R-S).

The data was analyzed using an analyses of covariance, with age and time in position as covariates, to determine differences between groups. No significant differences were found on any of the dependent measures. The relationship between the variables was determined by means of correlational analyses. Results of a Pearson product-moment correlation showed a significant correlation between the DAS and the BDI scores. The R-S scale was found to be very significantly correlated with both the BDI and the DAS scales (p < .001). A multiple regression procedure found that the repression scores were the strongest predictor of depression. The groups were found to differ on several demographic variables. The results and implications for future research are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-06, Section: B, page: 2055.

Thesis (PH.D.)--CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY - SAN DIEGO, 1985.

School code: 0379.