Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Death Among Chinese College Students and the Implications for Death Education Courses

• Published in: Omega: Journal of Death and Dying Vol. 85; no. 1; pp. 59 - 74
• Main Authors: Wang, Yuwei, Tang, Siyuan, Hu, Xin, Qin, Chunxiang, Khoshnood, Kaveh, Sun, Mei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2022; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude; Attitudes; China; College students; Death & dying; Death education; Female; Gender differences; Humans; Male; Males; Men; Mental states; Sex Factors; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires; China; gender; death education course; death attitude
• ISSN: 0030-2228; 1541-3764
• DOI: 10.1177/0030222820934944

This study aims to explore the attitudes of college-age students to determine how they approach the idea of death by using a questionnaire that explores five separate dimensions of attitudes and beliefs. We received 1,206 completed surveys and found evidence of a substantial gender difference in attitudes toward death. These differences remain after adjustment for differences between males and females in other correlates of death attitudes and are not a function of gender differences in the dimensionality of the five scales used to characterize attitudes. We speculate that these differences originate in culturally defined expectations that are gender-related, as well as in substantial differences in individual family experiences of death. These speculations can take the form of testable hypotheses that should explain differences within genders as well as between genders. We believe that better education about death for college students can shape a healthier mental state among them.