Young people who are strongly afraid of being rejected in close relationships more often report fear of death. And this fear, in turn, is associated with more pronounced symptoms of anxiety, depression and other forms of psychological ill-being. This is stated in a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The work involved 640 Italians aged 18 to 22 (average age - about 20.5 years). Most of them were women (83.4%), students (62.7%) or working students (28.8%). By religious views, 39.1% called themselves agnostics, 30.6% atheists, 30.3% believers. Participants were recruited through social networks; they filled out online questionnaires.
Psychologists use the term "attachment anxiety" - an increased sensitivity to rejection and abandonment in close relationships. People with the so-called anxious attachment style are precisely distinguished by high attachment anxiety. The other pole is avoidant attachment: a person emphasizes independence and suppresses emotional needs. The researchers measured attachment styles, fear of death, representations of death and symptoms of mental ill-being over the past two weeks: depression, anxiety, somatic complaints (for example, unexplained pain) and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (intrusive thoughts or urges).
It turned out that the higher the attachment anxiety, the stronger the fear of death. Avoidant attachment, by contrast, was associated with a lower reported fear of death. The authors caution: this does not mean that such people fear death less - perhaps they simply repress thoughts about it from consciousness.
What proved key was how a person represents death. Psychologists call this the ontological representation of death - that is, what, in a person's opinion, happens to his "self" after death. Some consider death a complete annihilation, others a transition to another state of existence.
The link between fear of death and symptoms of anxiety, obsessions and somatic complaints appeared only in those who perceived death as complete disappearance. In those who saw death as a transition, there was no such link. Depression, however, stood out from the overall picture: the representation of death did not affect its link with fear of death - attachment anxiety was associated with depression through fear of death regardless of views on death.
The authors emphasize: this concerns statistical associations, not proven cause-and-effect relationships. "The effects were statistically significant, but generally moderate in magnitude," noted the head of the work, Alessandro Musetti of the University of Parma. According to him, attachment style or fear of death by themselves do not determine mental health - they are only part of a broader picture.
In addition, the study was cross-sectional: all data were collected at one point in time, so it cannot be asserted that fear of death is what causes the symptoms. Reverse causation is also possible. Among the limitations are the predominance of young Italian women and students, recruitment through social networks and short self-questionnaires instead of clinical interviews.