Institute of Gerontology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor.
Omega (Westport). 2010;61(2):145-62. doi: 10.2190/OM.61.2.d.
Spousal death is one the most stressful life events that seriously affects the psychological well being of widowed. This study examined the mediating effects of social and personal religiosity on the psychological well being of widowed elderly people. The sample for this study was comprised of 1367 widowed and married elderly Muslims from Malaysia. Psychological well being, religiosity, and physical health were measured using WHO-5 Well being Index, Intrinsic Extrinsic religiosity scale, and a checklist of 16 physical health problems, respectively. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version-13). As expected, bivariate correlation analysis revealed that widowhood is statistically and negatively associated with psychological well being. Results of multiple hierarchical regression analyses and Sobel test showed that only the indirect effect of widowhood through personal religiosity was statistically significant (Sobel = -2.79, p < .01). Sobel test for social religiosity was not significant (Sobel = -1.54, p > .05). The results of this study confirmed earlier studies, which found that widowhood negatively affects psychological well being of elderly people. Overall, the findings show that the potential solace provided by religiosity can decrease the negative effects of widowhood on the psychological well being of widowed elderly people.
丧偶是最具压力的生活事件之一，严重影响丧偶者的心理健康。本研究探讨了社会和个人宗教信仰对丧偶老年人心理健康的中介作用。本研究的样本由来自马来西亚的 1367 名丧偶和已婚老年穆斯林组成。使用世界卫生组织-5 幸福感指数、内在-外在宗教信仰量表和 16 项身体健康问题检查表分别测量了幸福感、宗教信仰和身体健康。使用社会科学统计软件包（第 13 版）进行数据分析。正如预期的那样，双变量相关分析显示，丧偶与幸福感呈统计学上的负相关。多元层次回归分析和 Sobel 检验的结果表明，只有通过个人宗教信仰的丧偶间接效应在统计学上是显著的（Sobel =-2.79，p<.01）。社会宗教信仰的 Sobel 检验不显著（Sobel =-1.54，p>.05）。本研究的结果证实了先前的研究，即丧偶会对老年人的心理健康产生负面影响。总的来说，研究结果表明，宗教信仰提供的潜在慰藉可以减少丧偶对丧偶老年人心理健康的负面影响。
