| Abstract [eng] |
Associations of Health Anxiety in Young Adults with Death Anxiety, Health Locus of Control, and Rumination Urtė Dauginaitė, Vilnius, Vilnius University, 2026, 62 p. Excessive health anxiety may be associated with poorer mental health and emotional well-being. In order to better understand the associations between health anxiety and other factors, this study aimed to examine how health anxiety is related to health locus of control, death anxiety, and rumination. The study included 217 participants aged 18–29 years. Participants were recruited through social media platforms (“Facebook” and “Instagram”). The following instruments were used in the study: the Short Health Anxiety Inventory, the Revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death and Dying Scale, the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, the Repetitive Negative Thinking Questionnaire, and sociodemographic questions. The results revealed that health anxiety was associated with several variables: higher health anxiety was related to greater death anxiety, higher external chance and external powerful others health locus of control, and greater rumination, whereas lower health anxiety was associated with a stronger internal health locus of control. The study found that the prognostic factors of health anxiety were rumination, external chance and internal health locus of control, and death anxiety. Mediation analysis revealed that death anxiety and rumination mediated the relationship between health locus of control and health anxiety. It was also found that higher health anxiety was associated with individuals who rated their health more poorly and who had mental or physical illnesses. The obtained results suggest that health anxiety may be associated with death anxiety, rumination, and health locus of control. |
