Cultural Heritage in Peaceful Death Preparation among Thai-Chinese Elderly People

Abstract

This academic article presents the analysis of the meaning, components, and development process of an instrument designed to assess peaceful death preparedness among Thai-Chinese older adults. The conceptual framework was developed by integrating the Chinese cultural concept of the Five Blessings (Wu Fu, 五福) with Buddhist principles, including Marananussati (mindfulness of death), the Four Divine Abidings (Brahmavihara), and the Three Characteristics of Existence (Tilakkhana). The resulting framework comprises five dimensions: physical, social, economic, psychological, and wisdom dimensions. The article describes a four-stage instrument development process. The first stage involved establishing operational definitions through literature synthesis and in-depth interviews conducted until data saturation was achieved. The second stage consisted of developing a 25-item questionnaire based on the Five Blessings framework using a five-point Likert scale. The third stage involved content validity assessment by five experts, yielding item-objective congruence values ranging from 0.80 to 1.00. The final stage included three pilot studies with different sample sizes (n = 30, n = 60, and n = 88). The instrument demonstrated consistently high reliability coefficients across all trials, with Cronbach’s alpha values of .916, .959, and .922, respectively. The developed instrument provides academic value as a culturally grounded model for scale development. It also contributes to sociocultural understanding by facilitating discussions about death through the Five Blessings concept, thereby enhancing communication between older adults and their families. In practice, the instrument can be used for screening, assessment, and research in life and death psychology, supporting the development of public health policies that are responsive to Thailand’s multicultural context.