Abstract

Background and Objectives: Death and life after death are undoubtedly one of the most important issues in all divine religions. Death is perceived as a threat by many people because of its highly ambiguous significance. Anxiety and fear of death are common among all cultures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness in predicting death anxiety in the students of Zahedan Faculty of Nursing. Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, the study population consisted of all students of Nursing Faculty of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2017-2018. In order to collect data, a sample of 260 people was selected based on Morgan’s table using stratified random sampling. The instruments used to collect data were the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory developed by King (2008), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale developed by Brown and Ryan (2003), and the Death Anxiety Scale developed by Templers and Ruff (1971). For data analysis, descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, and also multivariate regression analysis in the SPSS version 21 were used, and P<0.05 was considered significance level. Results: The results showed that correlation coefficients of spiritual intelligence and all its components (r=-0.623, P<0.001), and mindfulness (r=-0.649, P<0.001) with death anxiety were negative and significant (P<0.001). In addition, the components of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness negatively predicted death anxiety. Conclusion: The results indicate the importance of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness in reducing death anxiety; therefore, it represents new horizons in clinical interventions and can be used as an effective intervention.