Psychometric Characteristics of the Persian Version of the Revised Fear of Personal Death Scale

Background: The thought of one’s own death is a fearful subject that is not easy to deal with. Fear of death can have various psychological effects on a person. Advances have been made in the measurement of death concerns leading to the development and validation of several scales as it varies according to social and cultural conditions. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties, content validity, concurrent validity, and factor structure of a Persian version of the revised Fear of Personal Death Scale (FPDS-R) in an Iranian population. Methods: This study was conducted on residents of Tehran, Iran, using the online version of the FPDS-R, Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale questionnaires. Finally, data analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 21). Moreover, the Pearson correlation coefficient and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used for data analysis. Results: Among 313 individuals who completed the study, the fit of the five-factor model in CFA was confirmed using standard indices (root mean square error of approximation = 0.06; chi-square/df = 2.34). Reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach’s alpha ( 0.8). Cronbach’s alpha values for the reliability of deprivation , loss of self , forgotten , other-oriented and mystery were 0.93, 0.88, 0.81, 0.86, and 0.88, respectively. The findings of this study confirmed the five factors model developed by Burris and Bailey (2009) on Iranian sample. Conclusions: The Persian version of the FPDS-R in Iranian society has good reliability and validity and can be used for personality research, identification and treatment of clinical disorders, and cross-cultural comparisons in this population.