Single- versus multi-item scales in measuring death anxiety.
The author investigated the reliability and concurrent validity of a Likert-type single-item test asking for a self-rating of death anxiety in two Arabic countries: Egypt and Kuwait.  A total of 1,439 participants were divided into 9 male and female subsamples and were tested by a single item of death anxiety, along with three psychometric multi-item instruments (i.e., Templer's Death Anxiety Scale, Thorson and Powell's Revised Death Anxiety Scale, and the Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety).  The single- and multi-item scales had high reliabilities.  All of the thirteen correlations between the single-item and the multi-item scales of death anxiety among men and women were statistically significant (p less than .001) and positive.  They ranged from .30 to .66, with a median of .51.  It was concluded that single-item assessment can be reliable across time (test-retest = .82) and that it correlates moderately with multi-item instruments.
Abdel-Khalek
A M
AM
Alexandria University, Egypt.
D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D004534:Egypt; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007730:Kuwait; D008297:Male; D010556:Personality Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires