Spousal Loss- Older Adults’ Gender-specific Experiences With Resilience in Pakistan’s Sindh Province

Abstract

Spousal loss among older persons is an emerging public health concern. Older adults from Pakistan’s Sindh province may be particularly vulnerable when encountering the tragedy of spousal loss due to their age. Although resilience in older persons who live in social isolation has been researched extensively, less is known about older Sindhi adults’ experience of how they achieve resilience after late-life spousal loss, and what different ways of achieving resilience are used by male and female older persons. This study aims to explore how older persons achieve resilience and how ways of achieving resilience differ across gender lines. The criterion-based selection of participants was undertaken before doing interviews. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with twenty six bereaved older adults, ranging in age from sixty two to seventy four, all living in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Follow-up discussions with the participants improved the credibility of findings and contributed to the depth and breadth of the study. Employing the concept of resilience as our analytical lens, we identified social engagement, cultural activities and leisurely activities that contributed to the post spousal loss resilience in older persons.