Cross-sectional study links coping, death anxiety and PTSD among threatened adults

A cross-sectional study of 306 adults exposed to prolonged security-related threat found that greater death anxiety was associated with more severe posttraumatic stress symptoms, or PTSS. Maladaptive cognitive coping was indirectly associated with this relationship, whereas the study detected no comparable indirect association for adaptive coping. Because all measures were collected at one observational assessment, the results show statistical associations rather than establishing that coping strategies, death anxiety or posttraumatic stress symptoms cause one another.

Participants completed self-report measures covering death anxiety, PTSS, adaptive and maladaptive cognitive coping, previous adverse life events, and exposure to ongoing security-related events. The researchers examined whether cognitive coping was indirectly related to the association between death anxiety and PTSS severity and whether that pattern differed according to the level of prior adversity. In the reported model, greater use of maladaptive cognitive coping was associated with an indirect link between death anxiety and PTSS severity. Adaptive coping was not related to PTSS severity, and no indirect association through adaptive coping was detected. The design does not establish the temporal order of these variables, nor can it determine whether maladaptive coping contributes to distress, develops in response to distress, or is associated with both through other factors.

The analysis also identified a non-linear relationship linking prior adverse life events, death anxiety and adaptive coping. At low levels of prior adversity, higher death anxiety was associated with greater adaptive coping. At high levels, the direction reversed: higher death anxiety was associated with lower adaptive coping. The authors therefore characterized cumulative life adversity as a conditional correlate of adaptive coping rather than a uniform correlate. The finding does not support labeling adaptive coping as protective, because it was not associated with PTSS severity in the primary analysis, and the study did not measure whether coping responses changed over time.

The proposed moderated mediation was not supported for the primary outcome of PTSS severity because adaptive coping was not related to that outcome in the main analysis. An exploratory supplementary analysis using a continuous complex-PTSD score did support the moderated-mediation model. This distinction is important: the complex-PTSD result came from a supplementary analysis and a different scoring approach, whereas the primary PTSS analysis did not support the full model. The authors noted that maladaptive cognitive coping may warrant attention as a potential intervention target in contexts of sustained insecurity, but the research did not test an intervention or demonstrate clinical benefit. The findings instead provide a cross-sectional account of the cognitive variables statistically associated with death anxiety and posttraumatic stress among this sample of adults facing prolonged security-related threat.

Subject of Research: Cognitive coping, life adversity, death anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms under prolonged security threat

Article Title: Death anxiety and posttraumatic stress under ongoing security threat: the role of cognitive coping and life adversity

Article References: Moshe, S., & Hamama-Raz, Y. (2026). Death anxiety and posttraumatic stress under ongoing security threat: the role of cognitive coping and life adversity. Current Psychology, 45(21), 1637. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-10136-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s12144-026-10136-2

Keywords: death anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms, maladaptive coping, adaptive coping, life adversity, security threat, cross-sectional study, self-report measures, Death, anxiety, posttraumatic, stress