Relationship between depression and psychological well-being of widowed individuals

Pages: 1989-1992
Dimpy Mahanta and Bhagyashree Deuri (Department of Psychology, Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam)

The departure of a person is a stressful experience, which can lead an individual to experience intense feelings of grief and despair, when prolonged might result in depression. The stage of widowhood brings transitions in the social role for the surviving partner, along with financial strain, loss of an important social support system, poor management, all of which impacts psychological well-being. The main objective of the present systematic investigation is to study the relationship between depression and psychological well-being of widowed individuals. The sample consisted of 100 widowed individuals (50 males & 50 females) from Guwahati (Assam) in the age range of 35-55 years. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling. For this , two scales were administered on the subjects, namely, Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1996) that studied depression level based on the scores and Ryff’s Psychological well-being Scale, which centres its attention on computing various sectors of psychological well-being. The data analysis was done using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and the t-test. Results showed that with increasing age, self acceptance increases among both males and females and they gradually adjust to widowhood, however early widows were seen to be more prone to depression and was found to have poorer psychological well-being. A significant negative correlation was also obtained between the variables of depression and psychological well-being. Significant gender difference was also observed on the variables mentioned. The present research threw light on a very important aspect of widowhood and how solitude due to loss of a significant other can lead to consequences like depression and affect the psychological well-being of the widowed individual. The implications of the findings have also been discussed in our paper.