Young People’s Experiences of Death Anxiety and Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Hughes, Ben and Jones, Kerry (2022). Young People’s Experiences of Death Anxiety and Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic. OMEGA Journal of Death and Dying (Early access).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228221109052

Abstract

Capacity for death awareness and death anxiety in young people has been previously documented but the impact of Covid-19 is not currently known. Therefore, the aim of this study of this study was to explore young people’s experiences and responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative data was collected from young people via a two-stage process across the United Kingdom: Stage One consisted of an online questionnaire; Stage Two comprised online semi-structured interviews. Responses for Stage One of the study totalled 120 young people; 9 of these were interviewed for Stage Two of the study. Thematic analysis of data identified four themes relating to young people’s experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic: death anxiety; mental health; normalising death; and identified support needs. Young people experienced heightened death anxiety due to the pandemic but death also became normalized for them and their mental health was negatively affected.

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