Psychosocial Challenges and Its Impact on Quality of Life Among Widows

Introduction: Marriage is a lifelong partnership built on mutual support and companionship. The loss of a spouse is a deeply traumatic experience that affects emotional stability and overall quality of life. According to the 2011 Census, over 44 million widows live in India, highlighting the growing social concern. Widows often face stigma, social isolation, and economic dependence, intensifying their psychosocial struggles. The objectives of the study were to assess psychosocial challenges and quality of life among the widows, to investigate the impact of psychosocial challenges on quality of life among widows, to find out the association between psychosocial challenges and demographic variables. Materials and Methods: The present study assessed psychosocial challenges and their impact on the quality of life among widows residing in Koratty Panchayat, Thrissur District. A non-experimental descriptive design was used, and 75 widows were selected through the non-probability snowball sampling method. Data were collected using a socio-demographic sheet, a self-structured questionnaire, and the Modified WHOQOL-BREF Scale. Results: Results showed that 84% of participants experienced moderate psychosocial challenges, while 53.3% reported a moderate quality of life. A significant moderate negative correlation was found between psychosocial challenges and quality of life (r = -0.877, p = 0.000), indicating that when psychosocial challenges increases, quality of life decreases. Conclusion: The present study showed the psychosocial challenges among widows and their impact on quality of life. Widows face numerous psychosocial challenges that significantly impact their living conditions. These challenges interfere with their participation in social activities as well as maintaining a stable livelihood. The results suggested that the majority of widows had a moderate level of psychosocial challenges. The findings indicated that when psychosocial challenges increase, quality of life decreases. Keywords: Psychosocial challenges, Quality of life, Widows.