Psychometric properties of the Spanish form of Templer's Death Anxiety Scale

Abstract

The aim of this study was to translate and adapt Templer's Death Anxiety Scale into Spanish and examine mean scores, internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure for a sample of 187 Spanish students, 147 women and 40 men, of an average age of 20.8 yr. Mean scores were 6.2 (SD = 3.4) for women and 5.0 (SD = 2.7) for men; these differences were statistically significant. Cronbach coefficient alpha was .73, and test-retest correlation over 3 wk. was .87. Analysis by principal components with varimax rotation produced four factors with eigenvalues greater than one; these were labeled (1) Cognitive-Affective, (2) Pain and Illness, (3) Stimuli Related to Death, and (4) Awareness of Time Passing. Obtained results were consistent with previous studies carried out on other versions of the scale and indicate this Spanish form of the Death Anxiety Scale is useful for evaluating death anxiety in Spanish-speaking subjects in Spain.