Stress, coping, and fear of personal death: The case of middle-aged men facing early job retirement

The study assesses how negative life events and coping responses affect diverse aspects of fear of personal death among middle-aged men who are in the process of early job retirement. Subjects reported life events they had experienced during the last three years and the coping responses they used for dealing with job retirement, and completed a questionnaire on their fear of personal death. The findings indicated that the accumulation of negative life events was related to high levels of fear of personal death. However, coping strategies mediated this relationship. Emotion-focused coping with early job retirement seemed to be a direct precursor of the fear of personal death and to underlie the effects of negative life events. The findings were discussed within the stress-coping frame­work. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings were emphasized.