STRESS, COPING, AND FEAR OF PERSONAL DEATH - THE CASE OF MIDDLE-AGED MEN FACING EARLY JOB RETIREMENT

The study assesses how negative life events and coping responses affec t diverse aspects of fear of personal death among middle-aged men who are in the process of early job retirement. Subjects reported life eve nts they had experienced during the last three years and the coping re sponses they used for dealing with job retirement, and completed a que stionnaire on their fear of personal death. The findings indicated tha t the accumulation of negative life events war related to high levels of fear of personal death. However coping strategies mediated this rel ationship. Emotion-focused coping with early job retirement seemed to be a direct precursor of the fear of personal death and to underlie th e effects of negative life events. The findings were discussed within the stress-coping framework. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings were emphasized.