Helping Attitude and Psychological Well-Being in Older Widowed Women

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between helping attitude and psychological well-being, and to determine if there are significant differences in helping attitude and psychological well-being between older widowed women living with their families and those living in old age homes. This study focused on the six dimensions of psychological well-being proposed by Ryff (1989b).A purposive sampling method was employed to select older widowed women aged between 65 – 74 years (20 living with families and 20 in old age homes). The Helping Attitude Scale (Nickell,1998) and the Psychological Well-being Scales (Ryff, 1989) were administered to the participants to measure the two variables. The obtained data were statistically treated using Product Moment Correlation and t-test. The study found that there is a significant correlation between helping attitude and purpose in life in older widowed women living with their families. It was also found that older widowed women living with their families scored significantly higher than older widowed women living in old age homes in two dimensions of the psychological well-being scales: environmental mastery and self-acceptance. Such an understanding may be helpful in designing intervention programmes to foster and maintain well-being in older widowed women.