Death Attitudes and Perception about the Death of the Vietnamese Elderly

摘要

style="text-align:justify;"> This study aims to examine the death attitudes and perception about the death of the elderly in Vietnam in the current period. Using the scale based on the research work of Wong and his colleagues (1994) and concepts of Buddhism, the study was performed on 959 elderly people in three areas: The Nord, the Centre and the South of the country. Results of data analysis show that only a part of the studied believe in afterlife. They tend to believe that their death is caused by pain, sadness and missing dear people instead of the supernatural that force them to die. Concerning death attitudes, we note that the majority of the studied will make actions expressing their willingness to accept death. Age, education, gender and life arrangement affect death perception as well as death attitudes in which we also note the difference by self-reported health and satisfaction of material life.