Method

Participants

The participants of this study were 178 older adults (female=90, male=88), aged from

60 to 90, the mean of age group was (1.9775) and Std. Deviation (.82991). They were

all Kurdish, from the cities of Koya, Erbil and Sulaimani and ranya (kindly look at

table (1) below):

Table (1)

Participants according to their gender, age and cities

Participants according Participants according to their Participants according to their city

to their gender age

female male 60-70 71-80 81-90 Koya Erbi Sulaimani ranya

Materials

Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) that was developed by Templer and that was first

published in 1970 (Sharif Nia, Lehto, et al., 2016). The DAS scale was originally

published as a 15-item measure (Templer, 1970) with a more widely used 51-item

extended format published in 2006 (Templer et al., 2006). The short-form version

(15-items) incorporates a yes-no question format, reverse-scoring Items 2, 3, 5, 6, 7,

and 15, and higher scores indicating higher levels of death anxiety (Templer, 1970).
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument, is the

most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress. It

is a measure of the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful.

Items were designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded

respondents find their lives (Cohen & Williamson, 1988, p. 34). The scale also

includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced stress. The

tool, while originally developed in 1983 by (Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., &

Mermelstein, R.) The PSS scale was originally published as a 14-item measure

(Cohen et al.1983), the PSS is commonly implemented using the 10-item form

(Cohen et al.1988) , the PSS-10 on a Likert-type scale with response categories

ranging from 1 (Never) to 5 (Very often) and total scores are tallied by reverse-

scoring Items 4, 5, 7, and 8 and then summing across all 10 items (Cohen et al., 1983;

Cohen &Williamson, 1988).

Validity and Reliability

Translation Validity:

Both English version scales were translated to Kurdish, by linguistic expert (look at

appendix (1)) who have master`s degree from English language. After that, the scales

were passed through back translation by linguistic expert who have bachelor`s degree

from English basic education (look at appendix (1)), and then another linguistic expert

who has master`s degree from English language (look at appendix (1)) was compared

both versions (original and translated versions) to evaluate the level of similarities and

differences between them. As a result, the level of similarities of translated version of

 death anxiety scale was (93.26 percent). And perceived stress Scale was

(92.6percent).

Construct validity

To evaluate the construct validity of both scales using SPSS program version 25, the

pilot studies were performed. The number of participants was 70. To know the

correlation between the total scale and its items, pearson correlation for both scales

had a high correlation between the total scale and its items, and it were all significant

at the level of (0.05) or (0.01), according to this; the researcher decided to keep all the

items for both scales, (kindly look at tables (2 & 3) below):

Table (2)

Correlation between Death Anxiety Scale and its items

The items Pearson correlation between Sig.(2-tailed)

the scale and the items
1. I am very much afraid to die. .924** 000.
2. The thought of death seldom enters my .841** 000.
mind.
3. It doesn’t make me nervous when people .924** .000
talk about death.
4. I dread to think about having to have an .394** .001
operation.
5. I am not at all afraid to die. .907** 000.
6. I am not particularly afraid of getting cancer. .848** 000.
7. The thought of death never bothers me. .851** 000.
8. I am often distressed by the way time flies .501** 000.
so very rapidly.
9. I fear dying a painful death. .737** 000.
10. The thought of life after death troubles me .860** 000.
greatly.
11. I am really scared of having a heart attack. .479** 000.
12. I often think about how short life really is. .638** 000.
13. I shudder when I hear people talking about .518** 000.
a World War III.
14. The sight of a dead body is horrifying to .684** .000
me.
15. I feel that the future holds nothing for me to .379** .001
fear.

Table (3)

Correlation between Perceived Stress Scale and its items

The items Pearson correlation between Sig.(2-tailed)

the scale and the items
1. How often have you been upset because of .800** .000
something that happened unexpectedly?
2. How often have you felt that you were unable to .870** .000
control the important things in your life?
3. How often have you felt nervous and “stressed”? .395** .001
4. How often have you felt confident about your .800** .000
ability to handle your personal problems?
5. How often have you felt that things were going .251* .036
your way?
6. How often have you found that you could not .756** .000
cope with all the things that you had to do?
7. How often have you been able to control .270* .024
irritations in your life?
8. How often have you felt that you were on top of .800** .000
things?
9. How often have you been angered because of .296* .013
things that were outside of your control?
How often have you felt difficulties were piling .10 .808** .000
?up so high that you could not overcome them

Reliability

Cronbach's Alpha

To assess the reliability of the scales, the pilot studies were performed. The number of

participants was 70. Using SPSS program version 25, Chronbach‟s alpha test was

conducted on the participants to check the internal consistency of both scales. For the

death anxiety scale, the alpha value was (.925), and perceived stress scale had an

alpha value of (.850), (kindly look at tables (4 & 5) below):

 Table (4)
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha N of Items
.925 15

Table (5)
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha N of Items
.850 10

Split half reliability

To find split half reliability, split both scales into two halves by SPSS program

version 25 the pilot studies were performed. The number of participants was 70, and

would find the correlation between both halves, for death anxiety scale the Spearman-

Brown Coefficient, Equal Length was (.910) and Unequal Length was (.911) and then

correction by Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was (.885), and for perceived stress

scale the Spearman-Brown Coefficient, Equal Length and Unequal Length was (.910)

and then correction by Guttman Split-Half Coefficient was (.909), (kindly look at

tables (6 & 7) below):

Table (6)
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha Part 1 Value .915
N of Items 8a
Part 2 Value .778
N of Items 7b
Total N of Items 15
Correlation Between Forms .835
Spearman-Brown Coefficient Equal Length .910
Unequal Length .911
Guttman Split-Half Coefficient .885
 Table (6)
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha Part 1 Value .758
N of Items 5a
Part 2 Value .665
N of Items 5b
Total N of Items 10
Correlation Between Forms .834
Spearman-Brown Coefficient Equal Length .910
Unequal Length .910
Guttman Split-Half Coefficient .909

Procedure

On November 5th,2020 the researcher started distributing the forms in elderly homes

in Erbil and Sulamani , The sample was randomly (and voluntary) selected The

scales were distributed both manually and through creating an online form. The online

form has been sent to some people in the cities outside Koya, as: Erbil, Sulaimani and

Ranya , to collect data among older adults , and the researcher collect the data in some

mosques and parks in koya . On November 29th the researcher completed collecting

the data, after that the researcher enters the data into the SPSS program to find out the

results.