Ageing after the Loss of Partner: Exploring the Lives of Widowed Older Adults in Kerala

The loss of a life partner often exerts psychological distress on older adults, which often compounds with other factors, adversely affecting their lives. Living arrangements and social connections can impact the ageing experience of older adults after the loss of a spouse. This descriptive cross-se...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial work & society Vol. 22; no. 1
Main Authors Laxmi Putran, AK Mohan, Anoop C Choolayil
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Social Work & Society 01.12.2024
Subjects
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

Loading…
Abstract The loss of a life partner often exerts psychological distress on older adults, which often compounds with other factors, adversely affecting their lives. Living arrangements and social connections can impact the ageing experience of older adults after the loss of a spouse. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 randomly selected older adults from the Kasaragod district of Kerala, India, who had lost their spouses to understand the sense of community and psychosocial profile of the respondents. Data was collected using a questionnaire comprising questions on demographic details and standardised scales for measuring the sense of community, life satisfaction, loneliness and depression. The findings showed that the sense of community had a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction (r = 0.531) and significant negative correlations with loneliness (r = -0.304) and depression (r = -0.603). Loneliness and depression had a significant positive correlation (r=0.447) with each other. Satisfaction with life had significant negative correlations with loneliness (r = -0.529) and depression (r = -0.689). Also, there were significant differences in the psychosocial profile of the respondents based on gender. Female respondents had significantly higher loneliness and depression and significantly lower life satisfaction and sense of community than their male counterparts. The findings suggest that widowed older adults experience significant psychosocial distress, and this distress is disproportionately affecting women. Hence, gender-informed interventions that target improving the social connectedness of older adults can contribute to better mental health outcomes.
AbstractList The loss of a life partner often exerts psychological distress on older adults, which often compounds with other factors, adversely affecting their lives. Living arrangements and social connections can impact the ageing experience of older adults after the loss of a spouse. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 randomly selected older adults from the Kasaragod district of Kerala, India, who had lost their spouses to understand the sense of community and psychosocial profile of the respondents. Data was collected using a questionnaire comprising questions on demographic details and standardised scales for measuring the sense of community, life satisfaction, loneliness and depression. The findings showed that the sense of community had a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction (r = 0.531) and significant negative correlations with loneliness (r = -0.304) and depression (r = -0.603). Loneliness and depression had a significant positive correlation (r=0.447) with each other. Satisfaction with life had significant negative correlations with loneliness (r = -0.529) and depression (r = -0.689). Also, there were significant differences in the psychosocial profile of the respondents based on gender. Female respondents had significantly higher loneliness and depression and significantly lower life satisfaction and sense of community than their male counterparts. The findings suggest that widowed older adults experience significant psychosocial distress, and this distress is disproportionately affecting women. Hence, gender-informed interventions that target improving the social connectedness of older adults can contribute to better mental health outcomes.
Author Laxmi Putran
Anoop C Choolayil
AK Mohan
Author_xml – sequence: 1
  fullname: Laxmi Putran
  organization: Central University of Kerala
– sequence: 2
  fullname: AK Mohan
  organization: Central University of Kerala
– sequence: 3
  fullname: Anoop C Choolayil
  organization: Central University of Kerala
BookMark eNqtjd1qAjEQhUOpoFbfYV5A2JCNrt5JUSwW9KLgZZjdmV0jMZFkte3baxcfoVcHznd-huLVB88vYiCnUk2KuVZ9MUzplGV6Jud6IA7Lhq1vAOuWI7RHhs-QEoQa9hhbz3EBq5-LC_Ev1GF7444fLIVvJtg5ejSXdHVtAuthyxEdjkSvRpd4_NQ38bFefb1vJhTwZC7RnjH-moDWdEaIjXn82cqxUQWXhZYl50h5RnmRU8laSa7UlElW6j-37ue5XKc
ContentType Journal Article
DBID DOA
DatabaseName Directory of Open Access Journals
DatabaseTitleList
Database_xml – sequence: 1
  dbid: DOA
  name: Directory of Open Access Journals
  url: https://www.doaj.org/
  sourceTypes: Open Website
DeliveryMethod fulltext_linktorsrc
Discipline Social Welfare & Social Work
EISSN 1613-8953
ExternalDocumentID oai_doaj_org_article_38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c
GroupedDBID 123
2WC
AAFWJ
ADBBV
AFPKN
ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS
BCNDV
E3Z
GROUPED_DOAJ
KQ8
KWQ
M~E
OK1
P2P
S4N
TR2
ID FETCH-doaj_primary_oai_doaj_org_article_38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c3
IEDL.DBID DOA
IngestDate Mon Dec 16 19:28:02 EST 2024
IsOpenAccess true
IsPeerReviewed true
IsScholarly true
Issue 1
Language English
LinkModel DirectLink
MergedId FETCHMERGED-doaj_primary_oai_doaj_org_article_38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c3
OpenAccessLink https://doaj.org/article/38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c
ParticipantIDs doaj_primary_oai_doaj_org_article_38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c
PublicationCentury 2000
PublicationDate 2024-12-01
PublicationDateYYYYMMDD 2024-12-01
PublicationDate_xml – month: 12
  year: 2024
  text: 2024-12-01
  day: 01
PublicationDecade 2020
PublicationTitle Social work & society
PublicationYear 2024
Publisher Social Work & Society
Publisher_xml – sequence: 0
  name: Social Work & Society
SSID ssj0057195
Score 4.653269
Snippet The loss of a life partner often exerts psychological distress on older adults, which often compounds with other factors, adversely affecting their lives....
SourceID doaj
SourceType Open Website
SubjectTerms life satisfaction
mental health
Older adults
sense of community
sociability
Title Ageing after the Loss of Partner: Exploring the Lives of Widowed Older Adults in Kerala
URI https://doaj.org/article/38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c
Volume 22
hasFullText 1
inHoldings 1
isFullTextHit
isPrint
link http://utb.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwrV07T8MwED6hTiyIp3gUdANii3ASp0nZAmpVHgUGULpFsX1BFSipQhEbv51z3KJuDLB4sKWz9Z3l-2ydvwM4jUgYUfalV4bsBkna94rACC9WUuqYVBm2f2HG973Rs7yZRJOVUl82J8zJAzvgzsOEFLMCRbIwUhiZSKOINw7psEfG1-3pK4LlZcqdwVHs24IRKyr8bbgYbsLGgudh6uxvwRpV29B1n2Exo7eyaAjPcNlRN687kKUvxJEE27rdyMwM7ziEYV3iI6-zouYCf1Lm3LDVjLXj2dTUn2TwwdbcxtRqarzjtMJb--JU7ML1cPB0NfLsQvOZ05fIreJz28E45Asc8t9wCPegU9UV7QMGmgSpwuiApFRk-kLGsWYuYaJE6EQfwOXf5zv8DyNHsB4wSXDpIV3ozJsPOuYgP1cnrT-5HX8NvgFMIrGc
link.rule.ids 314,780,784,2102
linkProvider Directory of Open Access Journals
openUrl ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Ageing+after+the+Loss+of+Partner%3A+Exploring+the+Lives+of+Widowed+Older+Adults+in+Kerala&rft.jtitle=Social+work+%26+society&rft.au=Laxmi+Putran&rft.au=AK+Mohan&rft.au=Anoop+C+Choolayil&rft.date=2024-12-01&rft.pub=Social+Work+%26+Society&rft.eissn=1613-8953&rft.volume=22&rft.issue=1&rft.externalDBID=DOA&rft.externalDocID=oai_doaj_org_article_38eb851be4ad40d484dbe531ec36ed1c