Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

Fall 12-13-2017

Abstract

A sample of 234 professional counselors were surveyed to investigate factors that affect professional counselors’ levels of death anxiety and death acceptance were investigated. Factors included personal experiences of mortality (personal threat), experiences of bereavement (grief), hours working with clients presenting death, dying, and bereavement (DDB) issues (client hours), numbers of clients who have died (client death), age, and hours of formal death education (death education). The measures of death anxiety and death acceptance were participants’ scores on the Death Attitudes Profile—Revised.

Analysis of the results found a significant negative relationship between client hours and death anxiety measures and a significant positive relationship between client hours and death acceptance measures. These results counselor education programs could better prepare counseling students by increasing exposure to counseling scenarios involving DDB issues.

Keywords

death and dying, bereavement, counselors, psychotherapists, counselor education, death anxiety, death acceptance

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Counselor Education

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Matthew Lemberger-Truelove

Second Committee Member

Deborah Rifenbary

Third Committee Member

Kamilla Venner

Fourth Committee Member

Martin Jones

Fifth Committee Member

Masumi Iida

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