The end of a marriage, therefore, has greater negative psychological consequences for men than for women. widowhood rites include loss of income, extreme poverty, financial dependency on men, negligence of the widow and her children, high school dropout rate and denial of education (Voice of the Widows , 2006). Widowhood rites. This process of losing a spouse and dying shortly after has also been called "dying of a broken heart". However, most widows and widowers appear to adjust successfully in the long run. I remember the first time I attended one of my friend’s wedding. And for widows and women to be fully liberated, awareness programmes should be given to them to sensitize them to some facts, particularly on what widowhood entails. The bride looks so beautiful and the groom looks so handsome, there is a lot of simple but creative flower arrangement around the bridal stage, fancy foods and drinks and the most important thing is everyone look so happy. Major life events such as widowhood are also associated with a disturbance in one’s normal routine (including participation in health behav- iors) and an increase in stress (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). MANY studies have shown that widowed persons score lower than married persons on measures of psychological well-being (Bengtson, Rosenthal, and Burton 1990; Gove and Shin 1989; Lee, Willetts, and Seccombe 1998; Mastekaasa 1994; W. Stroebe and Stroebe 1987, W. Stroebe and Stroebe 1993; Umberson, Wortman, and Kessler 1992). Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Somewhat paradoxically, men may be disadvantaged in the process of adjusting to widowhood because it is relatively uncommon among them. It is also likely that few men expect to outlive their wives and when they do they have not prepared for it psychologically or socially. This contradicts the common assumption that widowhood tends to be quite devastating psychologically. contexts. It is frequently the case that widowed parents move in with children, particularly if their own health is failing. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. Several studies (e.g., Schuster and Butler, Kindly Share This Story: By Morenike Taire. PETERS, A., and LIEFBROER, A. C. ‘‘Beyond Marital Status: Partner History and Well-Being in Old Age.’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 59 (1997): 687–699. Story: Salome Donkor. ‘‘65+ in the United States.’’ Current Population Reports, Special Studies. Some studies (e.g., Mendes de Leon et al., 1994) report that levels of depression, for example, return to prewidowhood levels in as little as a year after bereavement. ‘‘The Subjective Well-Being of the Previously Married: The Importance of Unmarried Cohabitation and Time Since Widowhood or Divorce.’’ Social Forces 73 (1994): 665–692. Widowhood appears to be a crisis to which most people eventually adjust, and the negative effects on psychological well-being generally diminish with time. UMBERSON, D.; WORTMAN, C. B.; and KESSLER, R. C. ‘‘Widowhood and Depression: Explaining Long-Term Gender Differences in Vulnerability.’’ Journal of Health and Social Behavior 33 (1992): 10–24. It also found that after the first three months, there's still a "widowhood effect" – about a 15% increased chance of dying for the surviving spouse. Youth empowered to fight negative widowhood rites ... is aimed at empowering the youth with journalistic skills and knowledge on the adverse effects of widowhood rites that were dehumanising. SCHUSTER, T. L., and BUTLER, E. W. ‘‘Bereavement, Social Networks, Social Support, and Mental Health.’’ In Older Bereaved Spouses: Research with Practical Applications. Lee et al. Pages 17–24. According to the authors, at baseline marriage was associated with a more favorable health profile than widowhood, and women who were recent widows (widowed in the past year) reported substantially higher rates of depressed mood, poorer social functioning, and lower mental health and physical functioning than the women who were widowed more than a year. The study finally found that widowhood rituals have negative effects of victims. However, in all cases, it is the widow who bears the brunt and brutalities associated with the practices. Pages 418–429. LEE, G. R., and DWYER, J. W. ‘‘Aging Parent-Adult Child Coresidence: Further Evidence on the Role of Parental Characteristics.’’ Journal of Family Issues 17 (1996): 46–59. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. Widowed persons also report more physical health problems than do comparable married persons. Widowhood appears to be a crisis to which most people eventually adjust, and the negative effects on psychological well-being generally diminish with time. Edited by Dale A. Lund. Several theories try to explain the widowhood effect, but research doesn’t support any theory over another. Most studies find that widowhood elevates the risk of mortality. Effects of widowhood. Pages 55–68. Some studies (e.g., Mendes de Leon et al., 1994) report that levels of depression, for example, return to prewidowhood levels in as little as a year after bereavement. Of course, this brief description is not exhaustive. The death ‘‘Effects of Bereavement on Symptoms of Psychopathology in Older Men and Women.’’ Older Bereaved Spouses: Research with Practical Applications. and its Licensors All Rights Reserved Edited by Paul B. Baltes and Margaret M. Baltes. (2001) found that widowed men were no more depressed than widowed women, but, because married men were less depressed than married women, the difference between married and widowed men was larger than the difference between married and widowed women. The involuntary loss of a spouse through death, preceded by either se… For instance, the imposition of restrictive and extensive mourning rites, such as seclusion, dress code or feasting are all having great implications on the socio-economic status of widows. So a return to the pre-widowhood level of depression meant that widowed persons were still more depressed than their married twins. The consensus that seems to be emerging is that, while widowhood is quite devastating psychologically in the short run for most people, over time most people adjust reasonably well. Hence widowhood rituals should be abolished. Some studies (e.g., Mendes de Leon et al., 1994) report that levels of depression, for example, return to prewidowhood levels in as little as a year after bereavement. Here, when a woman loses her husband, she is made to undergo the cruel rite of sleeping next to her husband’s dead body for a night. MENDES D. L., CARLOS F.; KASL, S. V.; and JACOBS, S. ‘‘A Prospective Study of Widowhood and Changes in Symptoms of Depression in a Community Sample of the Elderly.’’ Psychological Medicine 24 (1994): 613–624. From all indications, widowhood remains an important risk for transition into poverty. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1996. Men are more likely to remarry than women, which probably removes the least depressed men from the population of widowed persons, thereby decreasing the average of those remaining. LICHTENSTEIN, P.; GATZ, M.; PEDERSEN, N. L.; BERG, S.; and MCLEARN, G. E. ‘‘A Co-twin Control Study of Response to Widowhood.’’ Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 51B (1996): P279–P289. Widowhood is, and has been, a statistically normal part of the life cycle, particularly for women. PRIGERSON, H. G.; MACIEJEWSKI, P. K.; and ROSENHECK, R. A. Other studies, however (e.g., Lee, et al., 1998, 2001; Umberson et al., 1992) have reported stronger effects on men. 1989; Thompson, et al., 1989) have indeed found that widowhood has a greater adverse impact on the psychological well-being of women. 6. However, it is possible that increased contacts by children with widowed parents occur primarily in the first few years after widowhood; comparisons of the long-term widowed with married people show few differences in this area. Some would be subjected to unimaginable humiliation causing them social, psychological and emotional torture and trauma. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996. Prigerson and colleagues (2000) found that the number of chronic conditions, nursing-home days, physician visits, and health care costs increased more among widowed persons than among married persons. It could be the physical toll of caregiving on the surviving spouse, or it could stem from surviving spouses failing to care take of themselves after becoming widows or widowers. [citation needed]. This is one of the most archaic and barbaric cultural practices still performed in certain places around the world. Youth empowered to fight negative widowhood rites Abongobi Media May 25, 2018 News Leave a comment 517 Views About 40 selected youth from three Districts in the Upper East Region have been given community journalism training by media practitioners to identify and report on dehumanising widowhood rites practised in their respective communities. BRADSHER, J. E. ‘‘Older Women and Widowhood.’’ In Handbook on Women and Aging. A recent meta-analysis found that total life events as well as the death of Those without children may receive care from friends, neighbors, or relatives, but are also more likely to be institutionalized. Widowhood rites are not only practiced in Ghana but everywhere in Africa. Roan and Raley (1996) showed, based on a longitudinal study that followed people for five years, that adults whose mothers were widowed increased their frequency of visits, telephone calls, and letters to their mothers. ‘‘Preliminary Explorations of the Harmful Interactive Effects of Widowhood and Marital Harmony on Health, Health Service Use, and Health Care Costs.’’ The Gerontologist 40 (2000): 349–357. Widowhood rites makes to the list of outmoded cultural practices in Ghana. Not surprisingly, widowed persons have been found to score lower on measures of psychological well-being—and higher on measures of depression, loneliness, and anxiety—than married persons. About 40 selected youth from three Districts in the Upper East Region have been given community journalism training by media practitioners to identify and report on dehumanising widowhood rites practised in their respective communities. In each pair of twins, one had been widowed and the other was still married. Edited by Dale A. Lund. The fact that widowhood is a distressing experience is no mystery. Studies on widowhood rites in Africa generally bemoan what scholars consider as unpleasant treatment of widows, ranging from denial of basic hygiene, outlandish costumes and dress code, to intense public display of grief. Among some ethnic groups, widows are forced to strip naked in public and undergo other unpleasant exercises that abuse their right to dignity. When a spouse dies, although the marriage has ended in the physical realm, it has not ended in the spiritual. Their dislike of housework, combined with the necessity of doing it, is associated with greater depression. New York: Hemisphere, 1989. Widowhood practices vary among various ethnic groups in the country, some impacting negatively on widows and orphans. On June 30, 2016 12:30 am In News, Woman's Own by vanguard. LEE, G. R.; DEMARIS, A.; BAVIN, S.; and SULLIVAN, R. ‘‘Gender Differences in the Depressive Effect of Widowhood in Later Life.’’ Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 56B (2001): 556–561. However, many of these studies have found the adverse effects of widowhood on psychological well-being to be relatively small. The issue of widowhood rites, which has been described as one of the most dehumanizing, uncivilized and negative cultural practices in the world, due to its associated violation of the rights of women, is still rife in Africa treatments of widowhood rites have many negative influences on widows (Sossou, 2002 & Oghiagbephan, 2018:8). Lichtenstein and associates (1996) studied a sample of twins from Sweden. Current Widowhood: Myths and Realities. 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