Table 6.
Attitudes Toward Death by Socio-Demographic Characteristics a
| Health Occupation b | University Qualified b | Gender b | Age c | SEIFA Disadvantage c | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Z (n) | Z (n) | Z (n) | r (n) | r (n) | |
| Pre-MOOC Death Attitudes | |||||
| Death is a normal part of life | 0.44 (1154) | 4.09*** (1154) | −1.05 (1140) | .05 (1148) | .02 (1078) |
| I am comfortable talking about death/dying | −1.38 (1154) | 1.23 (1154) | −0.97 (1140) | .14*** (1148) | .01 (1078) |
| Most people do NOT feel comfortable talking about death/dying | 1.75 (1154) | 2.73** (1154) | −0.28 (1140) | .03 (1148) | .03 (1078) |
| Death/dying is presented as a normal part of life in the mainstream media | −0.17 (1154) | −7.55*** (1154) | 0.73 (1140) | −.05 (1148) | −.14*** (1078) |
| Social media provides different perspectives to mainstream media on death/dying | 0.64 (928) | −0.73 (928) | 1.13 (915) | −.03 (922) | −.04 (877) |
| Post-MOOC Death Attitudes | |||||
| Death is a normal part of life | 0.45 (208) | −0.22 (208) | −0.38 (206) | .09 (205) | −.06 (200) |
| I am comfortable talking about death/dying | −0.75 (208) | −1.35 (208) | −1.75 (206) | .18** (205) | −.19**(200) |
| Most people do NOT feel comfortable talking about death/dying | −0.78 (208) | 0.61 (208) | −0.05 (206) | .21** (205) | .14 (200) |
| Death/dying is presented as a normal part of life in the mainstream media | 1.39 (208) | −4.38*** (208) | 0.82 (206) | −.02 (205) | −.13 (200) |
| Social media provides different perspectives to mainstream media on death/dying | −0.53 (208) | −3.25*** (208) | 0.72 (206) | .06 (205) | −.09 (200) |
aPre-MOOC death attitudes data was provided by n = 1154, with the exception of the social media question, which was only presented to n = 928. N = 208 participants had socio-demographic data at enrolment and death attitudes data at the conclusion of the MOOC. A small number of participants had missing data on gender and age. SEIFA Disadvantage Index is only available for n = 1078 participants who provided an Australian postcode for their location at enrolment
bThe non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyse group differences due to the ordinal nature of the death attitude questions, and their skewed distributions. Nonetheless, the conclusions from the Independent samples t-tests and non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests were the same
cSpearman’s Rank-Order Correlation was used to analyse associations due to the ordinal nature of the death attitude questions. Conclusions using Pearson’s correlations were very similar
Note. ** p < .01; *** p < .001