Premium
Appropriate death: College students' preferences vs. actuarial projections
Author(s) -
McDonald Rita T.,
Carroll J. David
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(198101)37:1<28::aid-jclp2270370106>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - life expectancy , natural death , demography , expectancy theory , psychology , cause of death , gerontology , actuarial science , social psychology , medicine , medical emergency , economics , disease , sociology , population
Appropriate death was defined as the kind of death a person might choose for himself/herself, if given a choice. S s were 382 college students who stated their preferences for (a) age at time of death; (b) cause of death; (c) site of death; and (d) means of disposal of remains. Preferences were compared with national actuarial projections. The preferred average life expectancy for women was lower than the national average life expectancy ( p <0.001). Natural causes and accidents were oversubscribed, while cardiovascular ailments and cancer were undersubscribed as causes of death. A non‐institutional site for death was preferred by 91.3% of the S s; 39% of all deaths now occur outside an institution. Traditional burial underground was the choice of just more than half the sample, but a slight trend toward less traditional means of disposal of remains was noted over the five semesters of the study.