Attitudes Toward Death in Emerging Adulthood After the Emerging Infectious Disease COVID-19
Abstract
Following the outbreak of the emerging infectious disease COVID-19, there has been a shift in young adults' perspectives on death. This study aims to provide an overview of differences in attitudes toward death based on gender, religious perception, and experiences during the pandemic (as survivors, loss of loved ones, both, or neither). The method used was quantitative descriptive with the Death Attitude Profile—Revised (DAP-R) instrument and involved 225 participants through accidental sampling. The results show that the majority of Indonesian young adults have a high neutral acceptance (85.8%) and approach acceptance (64.9%) attitude, but some also show fear of death (40%) and death avoidance (41.8%). Women tend to have a higher fear of death and death avoidance attitude than men, while other attitudes are relatively balanced. Based on perceptions of religiosity, the religious group showed higher scores on neutral acceptance (87.1%) and approach acceptance (70.3%), although not always lower in fear or avoidance of death than the non-religious group. Meanwhile, based on pandemic experiences, all groups showed a predominance of fear of death, but individuals who were grieving and experienced both (“being a survivor and experiencing loss”) showed higher acceptance scores than other groups These findings enrich our understanding of the dynamics of attitudes toward death among young Indonesian adults post-crisis as reviewed by gender, religious perception, and experiences during the pandemic.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30872/psikoborneo.v14i1.23294
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