Psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the Death Obsession Scale (DOS)

The aim of this work was first to translate into Spanish and then to adapt Abdel-Khalek's Death Obsession Scale (DOS) for Spanish subjects, and to establish the scale's psychometric properties. The scale was translated from its Arabic and English forms and administered, along with other instruments, to a sample of 344 Spanish university students. The results obtained indicate high coefficients of internal consistency and stability, as well as adequate concurrent validity and a factor structure which is meaningful and significant, such outcomes being similar to those obtained in previous studies with Arab or English samples. These results justify the use of the Death Obsession Scale in evaluating preoccupation with death among Spanish-speaking subjects.