IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i3p126-d1596510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Death Anxiety Among Peer Caregivers of Older Persons in Two US Prisons

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Grace Prost

    (Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work and Family Science, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA)

  • Warren Stewart

    (School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences, University of Brighton, Brighton BN2 4AT, UK)

  • Meghan A. Novisky

    (Corrections Institute, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45206, USA)

  • Mary-Louise Parkkila

    (College of Social Work, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA)

Abstract

Background: Death anxiety is marked by worrisome thoughts and feelings surrounding death. It can influence health care workers’ performance and increase workforce attrition, yet no study has examined death anxiety among persons who provide peer care in the correctional system. Methods: Two small samples of peer caregivers working in two US prisons were surveyed ( N = 27). Using the 15-item Death Anxiety Scale, we first described death anxiety using descriptive statistics. We examined gender disparities using an independent sample t-test and explored the associations between death anxiety, caregiver burden, and depression using Kendalls’ Tau-b. Results: Average death anxiety for the sample was 6.30 (SD = 2.88) and while women reported greater death anxiety than men, (M = 6.82, SD = 2.77; M = 5.40, SD = 2.99, respectively), the difference was not significant (t(25) = 1.25, p = 0.111). Although death anxiety did not relate to care burden or depression, a significant relationship was found between care burden and depression for peer caregivers in this sample. Conclusions: This is the first study to examine death anxiety among correctional system peer caregivers. Further research with larger samples, and across multiple jurisdictions and facility types is required as is investigation of the influence of death anxiety on care outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Grace Prost & Warren Stewart & Meghan A. Novisky & Mary-Louise Parkkila, 2025. "Death Anxiety Among Peer Caregivers of Older Persons in Two US Prisons," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:3:p:126-:d:1596510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/126/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/126/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:3:p:126-:d:1596510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.