The relationship between fear of death and the meaning of life in parents of terminally ill children

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between fear of death and the meaning of life in parents of children in the terminal period. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study was conducted with 61 parents of terminally ill children. A Personal Information Form, the Fear of Death Scale (FDS), and the Meaning in Life Scale (MLS) were used for data collection. Standard deviation, mean, percentage, maximum, and minimum numbers were used for descriptive data analysis. Normal distribution of numerical variables and scale scores was examined using Kurtosis and Skewness. In the study, the Mann-Whitney U test was used for binary variables, the Pearson correlation test for correlations between two scales, and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for three or more variables. Results: The mean age of the parents in the study was 37.73 (9.43), 63.9% were female, 95.1% were married, 25% had a high school education, and 25% had a university or higher education level. It was determined that 54.1% of the parents were unemployed. When the relationship with the patient was examined, it was determined that 60.7% of the parents were the patient's mother. When the relationship between the SCA total and subscale scores and the SCA total and subscale scores was examined in the Pearson correlation analysis, no statistically significant relationship was found between the scale total scores and subscale scores. However, a negative and weakly significant correlation (p: 0.05) was found only between the SCA fear of death and death avoidance subscale and the SCA meaning subscale. In the simple linear multiple regression analysis conducted to determine the effect of the variables of gender, education level, employment status, who should give information about death and fulfillment of the child's last wish on the ÖKÖ, where there is a difference between the groups in terms of the existing meaning subscale of YAS and ÖKÖ total score average, the Backward method was used and the established model was found to be statistically significant (F: 4.15, p: 0.002). Conclusion: As fear and avoidance of death increase, existing meaning diminishes. During this challenging time, palliative care nurses must address the physiological, psychological, and sociological needs of terminally ill patients and their parents while also providing them with the necessary privacy.