The Mediating Role of Attachment to God in the Relationship between Religious Coping strategies and Death anxiety in Elderly People

Aging is a biological phenomenon, natural and one of the stages of life, and one of the indisputable facts of aging is the approach of death. The purpose of this research was to examine the mediating role of attachment to God in the relationship between religious coping strategies and death anxiety in older individuals. This research is part of descriptive-correlative research and cross-sectional research method and structural equation modeling (SEM). The statistical sample for this research includes all elderly people living in Tehran from May to July 2023. The sampling method in this study was a multistage cluster method. The researcher chose a sample size of 350 people and finally the data of 298 people were analyzed. Research instruments included Pargament's Religious Coping Styles Questionnaire (R-Cope), Templar's Attachment to God Inventory (AGI), and Templer's Death Anxiety Survey (DAS). SPSS-27 software was used to analyze descriptive statistics and SmartPLS 4 software was used to analyze data trends and standard coefficients. Similarly, the Sobel test was used to test the significance of the mediator variables.The direct effect of positive religious coping on attachment to God was significant (β=0.728, P<0.001). The effect of negative religious coping on death anxiety was positive and significant (β=0.131, P=0.036). The results of this study suggest examining the mediating role of attachment to God in the relationship between religious coping strategies and death anxiety in older individuals.