The reliability and validity of the Death Obsession Scale among English university and adult samples

The reliability and concurrent validity of the 15-item Death Obsession Scal e [Abdel-Kharek, A. M. (1998a). The structure and measurement of death obse ssion. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 159-165] is examined amo ng 174 English university students (83 men: 91 women) and 105 English adult s (42 men, 63 women). Consistent with previous findings when using the Deat h Obsession Scale, the scale yields a three factor structure ('death rumina tion','death dominance' and 'death idea repetition'), demonstrates adequate reliability statistics, and displays concurrent validity with expected sig nificant positive correlations with measures of death anxiety, death depres sion, obsessional symptoms, anxiety, depression and neuroticism. These find ings suggest confidence in the use of the Death Obsession Scale in empirica l studies surrounding death distress among English speaking samples. (C) 20 00 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.