title: The Multidimensional Orientation Toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F): Factorial Validity and Reliability in a U.S. Sample.
abstract: Death anxiety has been hypothesized to be a transdiagnostic construct, meaning that the fear of death may increase one's vulnerability to the development or maintenance of a number of psychological disorders. As such, effective and efficient measurement of this construct becomes a priority for hospice and palliative medicine specialists. The Multidimensional Orientation Toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F) is the only factor-analytically constructed multidimensional scale with a conceptual rationale that measures both the fear and acceptance of dying and death.
  
  
  
  To determine the factor structure of the MODDI-F with an English-speaking sample, so as to expand the scale's potential for use in hospice and palliative medicine, clinical psychology, and thanatology research.
  
  
  
  Participants comprise a random sample of 404 adults ranging in age from 20 to 85, stratified by sex, age, and ethnicity. They completed the 47-item MODDI-F/eng and were contacted five months later for a test-retest follow-up survey.
  
  
  
  Although confirmatory factor analyses did not fit the models previously found for the German- and Chinese-language versions of the MODDI-F, exploratory factor analyses resulted in a five-factor fear dimension and a two-factor acceptance dimension that were empirically and conceptually similar to the German- and Chinese-language versions. Additional psychometric analyses yielded evidence for the internal consistency reliability, five-month test-retest reliability, and construct validity of the seven-factor scores of the English-language MODDI-F.
  
  
  
  The results from this psychometric investigation of the English-language version of the MODDI-F are promising and warrant further investigation with clinical populations in hospice and palliative care settings.
authors.affiliation: Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, USA. Electronic address: macdougall@hood.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: MacDougall
authors.affiliation: Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ingrid G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Farreras
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Death anxiety; clinical psychology; death acceptance; factor analysis; thanatology; transdiagnostic construct