The stigma of widowhood in war and disaster affected communities of Sri Lanka: Contextual paths between trauma exposure and mental health distress
Keywords
mass trauma, stigma, widowhood, Sri Lanka
Abstract
To add to the dialogue regarding the long‐term recovery and wellbeing of war and tsunami‐affected women in Sri Lanka, we utilised the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR, Hobfoll, 2009) to inform an investigation of direct and indirect effects. The study was specifically designed to assess how traumatic exposure may represent a form of loss which may associate with related losses in the form of external and internal stigma which may then associate with poor mental health outcomes. The data for this study were collected in 2016 from a sample of 379 widowed women in Eastern Sri Lanka; participant spouses died in the civil war, in the tsunami, or from health or other problems. Our analyses yielded a model suggesting associations between remembered trauma event exposure from war and disaster, external stigma, internalised stigma and mental health symptom distress. Results further yielded direct and indirect effects suggesting that trauma may represent a form of loss, and potentially lead to distress through the weight and challenges of stigma.
Original Publication Citation
Banford Witting, A., Lambert, J., Johnson, L.N., Goodkin, C. and Wickrama, T. (2020), The stigma of widowhood in war and disaster affected communities of Sri Lanka: Contextual paths between trauma exposure and mental health distress. International Journal of Psychology, 55: 647-656.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Witting, Alyssa Banford; Lambert, Jessica; Johnson, Lee N.; Goodkin, Carly; and Wickrama, Thulitha, "The stigma of widowhood in war and disaster affected communities of Sri Lanka: Contextual paths between trauma exposure and mental health distress" (2019). Faculty Publications. 4150.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/4150
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2019-09-01
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6960
Publisher
International Journal of Psychology
Language
English
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Department
Family Life
Copyright Status
© 2019 International Union of Psychological Science
Copyright Use Information
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/