The Role of Social Support and Age in Emotional Life Adaptation among Widows in the University Setting in Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated the role of social support and age in emotional life
adaptation among widows. Two hundred and eighty two subjects comprising 137 widows and 145 non-widows (control group) all drawn from Nigerian Universities participated in the study. The widowed subjects consisted of younger widows (18 – 37 years old) and older widows (40 – 50 years old). They were further classified into high and low social support groups. Based on their scores and the social support questionnaire and the emotional adaptation questionnaire, the hypotheses were tested, non-widows reported significantly superior or have higher level of emotional adaptation than widows. Widows that are low in social support reported significantly showed lower level of emotional adaptation than widows high in social support. And younger widows reported significantly poorer or showed lower level of emotional adaptation than older widows. The findings were discussed
some implications of the finding were highlighted and suggestions made.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 5 2008: pp. 61-71