This study was conducted to examine the impact of hospice service experiences on the volunteers’ attitudes toward life and death.

Study 1 examined differences in life and death attitudes between hospice volunteers, hospice service trainees, and lay people using one-way ANOVA. Study 2 conducted in-depth interview with 10 hospice-patient care volunteers who had at least 3 years of experience.

After analyzing differences between three groups of lay people, hospice trainees and hospice volunteers, both hospice trainees and hospice volunteers compared to lay people showed lower pursuit of power and achievement, which can be interpreted as a characteristic of people motivated to volunteer, rather than volunteering itself. However, only hospice volunteers reported highly of religion and community as factors of meaningful life. Also, the volunteer group showed significantly lower death anxiety compare to the group without volunteer experience. Result of qualitative study showed that people realized the importance of family and altruistic lifestyle and prepared their own demise in their lives after volunteering.

These findings suggest that experiences of hospice service may be associated with self-transcendent life and positive death attitudes.

Purpose of this study was to investigate effect of religious & existential spirituality on death anxiety and difference of death anxiety according to sex and presence of spouse. Also we studied the moderating effect of sex in the process of religious & existential l spirituality affecting death anxiety.

A total of 424 subjects were enrolled and the mean age was 38.14 years (SD=11.69).

First, Effect of religious & existential l spirituality on total score of death anxiety was not significant. But, there was differences in sub death anxiety. The higher religious spirituality, the lower fear of dying early and the higher existential spirituality, the lower fear of dying process and the higher fear of loss of important persons. Second, death anxiety of woman higher than man. Furtherrmore, death anxiety of woman with spouse higher then woman without spouse and man. Third, main effect of & existential spirituality and sex on fear of dying process and loss of important person was significant, Interaction effect of spirituality and sex was not significant. Also, main effect of & religious spirituality on fear of dying early was not significant and interaction effect of existential spirituality and sex was significant. There was no gender difference in the low existential spiritual group, but death anxiety of man was lower than woman in the high group.

It is necessary to distinguish multiple aspects of death anxiety, to search and verify effects of spirituality on various death anxiety.