Intervention on attitudes toward death along the life span

The aim of the present work is to describe changes in attitudes, anxiety, a nd depression toward death along the life span and to explore the effects o f two different educational modes on the levels of death anxiety and fear o f death. Nine groups were involved: three comprising young adults, three of middle-aged people, and three of elderly people. Each of the three age gro ups received two types of intervention: "Experiential Workshop" and "Confer ence." Additionally, each age group had a control group. The educational in tervention took place in May 1996 and lasted five hours. Four months later, a follow-up was performed in which subjects repeated the same tests as in the first application. The results obtained indicate that the young adults subjected to the "Conference" treatment increased their "despair," "sadness ," and "depression" about death, whereas those participating in the Experie ntial Workshop had decreased "terror" and "death anxiety" levels, although their level of "despair" increased. In the middle-aged group, significant d ifferences were only found after the Experiential Workshop intervention, wi th an increase in "despair," "loneliness," and "death depression" levels. F inally, in the groups of elderly people participating in the Experiential W orkshop "death anxiety" levels decreased. The implications of these finding s are discussed.