Risky behaviour and death anxiety among young adults: An exploratory scoping review

Purpose: An exploratory literature scoping review was conducted to investigate the health issues surrounding ‘death anxiety’ and to consider whether risky behaviour of young adults is a direct consequence of death anxiety particularly with respect to their ‘gender’. Methods: A PICO literature search strategy was utilised to identify relevant local and international articles published after the year 2000 and catalogued within key online data bases. Results: Out of 139 articles initially identified, 11 articles were found to be specifically relevant to the topic. Each article was coded according to a dominant theme or themes. Conclusion: The majority of research articles indicated that regardless of age and gender, young adults experienced death anxiety and engaged in risky behaviour due to a variety of influences such as age, gender, religion/culture and locus of control.