Page 1 of 17
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1814
Self efficacy and Hope as doorways to Post-Traumatic Growth
among Widows
ABSTRACT
*Rajiv Kumar ** Punam Midha
*(Research Scholar, Departmen of Psychology, Maharshi Dayanand University Rohtak,
Haryana, India)
**(Professor, Departmen of Psychology, Maharshi Dayanand University Rohtak,
Haryana, India)
Absract :Life is an amalgam of joys and sorrows. Sometime sorrows serve as blessings in disguise as
they force us to recognize hidden potential during the time of crises. Widowhood is such an unbearable
torturous experience of life, which may otherwise provides an opportunity to navigate her strengths and to
capitalize upon them while facing the adversities of life. However such insurmountable sufferings give
meaning to a life – a growth in an actual sense. Thus the present study is an attempt to explore and
highlight the inner strengths i.e. self efficacy and hope among widows which may serve as a resource for
the post traumatic growth. A purposive sample of 100 literate widows, aged 30-50 years, was drawn from
the rural areas of Haryana and Punjab states with five years of married life and at least one year of
widowhood. Widow’s self efficacy, hope and post traumatic growth were assessed by using reliable and
valid scales/tests. Descriptive statistics was computed, which indicated an average level of self efficacy
and above moderate level of hope and post traumatic growth among widows. Further correlation analysis
reveals the high positive correlation of both self efficacy and hope with post traumatic growth. Regression
analysis indicated that hope emerged as a robust predictor of post traumatic growth whereas self efficacy
emerged as a weak predictor of such growth. The findings of the current work revealed that psychological
growth can occur after experiencing trauma where hope plays a magical role not only to come out of
traumatic niche but to flourish and thrive in life.
Key words: Self efficacy, Hope, Post traumatic growth, Widows
Page 2 of 17
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1815
Introduction:
Life in nodoubt a bed of sweet roses, but also accompanies its thorns, which may be painful but that pain
provides a real meaning to life. A life which is not only meant to live, to survive, but to flourish and
thrive. Sometimes life becomes purposeful only after experiencing adversities. These adversities have
both destructive as well as constructive effects, depending upon one’s orientation towards perceiving
those hardships. A person with an optimistic outlook perceives sorrows as a testing opportunity to check
their potentials to face the miseries of life boldly.
Widowhood is an extreme trauma in the life of a woman. In India the population of widows is
estimated to be approximately 46 millions, hence the largest number of widows in the world (World
Economic Forum, 2015). The plight of widows is very pathetic all around the world, despite the financial
crises, they have to face so many physical, mental and social tortures, ultimately leading to a state of post- traumatic stress disorder (Bardy, Acierno, Resnick,. Kilpatrick & Saunders, 2004; Rheinngold, Smith,
Ruggiero, Saunders, Kilpatrick & Resnick, 2004).On the contrary their unfathomable sufferings prepare
them to search out their hidden capabilities , thereby resulting in psychological growth – a growth which
come after facing the trauma of life. As Calhoun and Tedeschi (2009) defined it as a positive
psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances.
Though experiencing the death of a husband is very agonizing yet later on serve as an opportunity for
personal growth. As Kesseler (1987) reported that post-traumatic growth among people who experienced
loss may be attributed to their wisdom, maturity, a new developed life perspective, autonomy, and
generosity-all of which give meaning and purpose to a life. In other words one’s psychological frame of
mind (i.e. his/her psychological capitals such as resilience, hope, self, efficacy , optimism and the
effective ways of coping to tackle the upheaval) serve as a reservoir of energy to maintain the equilibrium
in life after facing the trauma of events. There are huge empirical evidences which emphasized renewed
appreciation of life and enhanced personal strength among people who experienced trauma in their life
(Tedeschi and Calhoun,1993; Affleck and Tennen, 1996; Nolen – Hoeksewe and Jan’s, 2002, and
Tennen and Affeleck, 2002, Devine, kiright, Loiselle, Fenton and Blount, 2010; Ali, Evans-Camobel
2006). Earlier Ryff and Singer (2003a) reported the positive effects of trauma in terms of changes in
perception (i.e. enhanced level of confidence, self – dependence, greater appreciation of life),
relationships (i.e increased need of affiliation and gregariousivness, enhanced level of compassion for
other) and life priorities i.e. increased clarity about the mission of life (Chuhrbe, 2008).
Page 3 of 17
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 05
May 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1816
There are plethora of research studies where self efficacy emerged as predictor of post
traumatic growth (Schuitz and Mohamed, 2004; Luszczynska, Mohammed and Schwarzas, 2005;
Saandourd, 2006; Cieslack, Benight, Schmidt, Luszycynska, Curtin, Clark and Kissiner, 2009; Marcus,
2010; Saccinto, Valles, Hilterman and Roiha, 2013; Kashavi, 2014, Shori, Bock, Cieslak, Zukowska,
Luszczynska, and Benight, 2014; Peng, Tang, Chen, Li and Wang 2014; Mystakidou, Parpa, Tsilika,
Panagiotou, Theodorakis, 2015; LaRocca, 2016; Fang, Mingjou, Pengqirng, Yuqian, Yi, Xiuhui and
Chang xiang, 2017). Most of the above mentioned studies are related with the trauma of life threatening
diseases specifically HIV and cancer. Thus with a strong sense of competence fostering perseverance
which helps in maintaining strong commitment towards meeting the goals of life.
Hope is another psychological asset, a positive emotional as well as cognitive state of mind, a
combination of way as well as will power, which not only serves as a coping strategy for stress rather help
in their personal inner growth. There is a wealth of lietrature which has highlighted the role of hope in
post traumatic growth (Snyder, Harris, Anderson, Holleran, Irving & Sigmon, 1991; Ai Peterson, Tice,
Bolling, & Koening, 2004; Ai, Cascio, Santangelo, and Campbel, 2005; Ho, Rajandran, Chan, Zwahten,
2011; Hullmann, MecGrath, Moezon, Mayls, Mullins, 2014; Yuen, Ho, Chan,2014; Tobin and Susannah,
2015; Heidarzadeh, Dadkhan and Gholchin, 2016; Anjum and Maqbool, 2017).
After reviewing an extensive literature related to the benefit of aftermath trauma experienced
due to various reasons such as in life threatening diseases as cancer, HIV, rape and natural disaster, hence
a handful of research studies all over the world have explored the psychological growth of widows. So the
present study is an attempt to highlight the level of self efficacy and hope among widows who are living
in the rural areas of Haryana and Punjab to find out the correlation of these psychological assets with post
traumatic growth.
Objectives
1. To explore the levels of self efficacy and hope among rural widows.
2. T o explore post traumatic growth among widows.
3. To examine the relationship of self efficacy and hope with post traumatic growth (overall and its
various domains) among rural widows.
4. To investigate the predicting power of self efficacy and hope with regard to post traumatic growth
among rural widows.
