Relationship between death anxiety and coping with death competence among Chinese oncology nurses: A chain mediation model

Table 1 Participants’ demographic and clinical characteristics (n = 615)

Characteristics	Variable	Frequency	Percent (%)
Gender	Male	8	1.3
	Female	607	98.7
Age	20-30	171	27.8
	31-40	381	61.9
	≥ 41	63	10.3
Educational level	Junior college and below	87	14.2
	Bachelor’s degree	503	81.8
	Master’s degree and above	25	4.0
Hospital level	Tertiary hospitals	486	79.1
	Secondary hospitals	84	13.6
	Primary hospitals	45	7.3
Years of working experience in oncology care	≤ 1 year	62	10.1
	2-5 years	220	35.8
	5-10 years	240	39.1
	≥ 10 years	93	15.0
Religion	No	576	93.7
	Yes	39	6.3
Bereavement experience	No	344	55.9
	Yes	271	44.1

Table 2 Correlations among death anxiety, death attitude, resilience and coping with death competence

Outcome variables	Mean	SD	1	2	3	4
Death anxiety	7.1	1.9	1.00
Death attitude	89.5	10.6	-0.710a	1.00
Resilience	78.8	15.7	-0.651a	0.671a	1.00
Coping with death competence	134.3	26.2	-0.721a	0.532a	0.611a	1.00

^aP < 0.01.

Table 3 Regression results in the chain mediation analysis

Criterion	Predictors	R	R2	F	coefficients	β	t	95%CI
Death attitude	Death anxiety	0.828	0.685	68.608	-0.265	-0.243	-6.254	-0.285 to 0.332
Resilience	Death anxiety	0.783	0.613	78.568	-0.154	-0.467	-8.863	-0.243 to 0.144
	Death attitude				0.423	0.490	8.247	0.322 to 0.723
Coping with death competence	Death anxiety	0.892	0.796	135.439	-0.041	-0.296	-7.353	-0.055 to 0.054
	Death attitude				0.178	0.357	8.374	-0.076 to 0.297
	Resilience				0.154	0.398	9.264	-0.143 to 0.255

CI: Confidence interval.

Table 4 Test results of bootstrap mediation effect

Effect relationship	Effect size	Effect ratio	Boot LLCI	Boot ULCI
Total effect	0.498		0.395	0.614
Direct effect	0.201	41.56	0.112	0.322
Total indirect effect	0.297	58.44	0.165	0.392
Death anxiety to death attitude to coping with death competence	0.118	23.81	0.056	0.163
Death anxiety to resilience to coping with death competence	0.108	21.25	0.032	0.176
Death anxiety to death attitude to resilience to coping with death competence	0.071	13.38	0.042	0.123

Boot LLCI: Bootstrap lower confidence interval; Boot ULCI: Bootstrap upper confidence interval.