THE RELATIONS BETWEEN FEAR OF COVID-19, ANXIETY OF DEATH, AND MEANING OF LIFE AMONG NURSING STUDENTS

Year 2022, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 157 - 172, 29.08.2022

Gülhan Yiğitalp , Funda Gümüş

https://doi.org/10.33457/ijhsrp.1112061

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Abstract
Aim of the study was to determine the effects of socio-demographic factors on fear of COVID-19, death anxiety, and meaning of life among nursing students, and to explain the relations between fear of COVID-19, death anxiety, and meaning of life. The study was conducted with 262 students on 7-27 October 2020 in a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional design. According to the correlation analysis, a moderate and positive relationship was detected between Fear of COVID-19 Scale (CFS) and Turkish Death Anxiety Scale (TDAS) total score and subscale scores. The mean age of the students who participated in the study was found to be 20.63±2.31, 64.1% were female. It was found that 29% of the students had sleep problems in this period, and 7.6% were diagnosed with COVID-19, and 85.9% of themhad their close friends and relatives diagnosed with COVID-19. The majority of the students (n=16) who were diagnosed with COVID-19 passed this process under quarantine at home without treatment, 59.2% of them stated that someone in their close circle had a positive COVID-19 test, and 31.7% lost a relative due to COVID-19. The model that was created in the multiple linear regression analysis which was made to determine the effects of TDAS and Meaning of Life Questionnaire (MLQ) on CFS was found to be statistically significant (F:54.91, p<0.001). In this respect, it was also found that death anxiety and meaning of life were statistically significant (R2=0.29) as the determinants of fear of COVID-19 (explanatory power). It was determined in the study that, as the fear of COVID-19 increased, death anxiety also increased. However, it was also found that the meaning attached to life did not change, and the meaning of life and death anxiety were significant determinants of the fear of COVID-19.

Keywords

Fear of Covid-19, death anxiety, the meaning of life, nursing students

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