Coping with bereavement of widows in the Chinese cultural context of Hong Kong

Abstract

Although Hong Kong has developed into a Westernized city, many widows still feel the strong pull of cultural demands in coping with the loss of their husbands. The purpose of this study was to explore how Chinese women in Hong Kong cope with bereavement and widowhood. Results reveal that the coping methods of the 26 participants are pragmatic and culturally dependent, and can be grouped into four categories, namely, remaining lonely and stigmatized, submitting to predestination and fate, seeking a transition from feeling aggrieved to active coping, and searching for new family relationships. The implications for social work practice are discussed.

“My Last Husband and Marriage:” The Impact of Inheritance Disputes on Chinese Immigrants’ Widowhood in the United States

“…The five key themes of the participants' accounts follow a chronological order: (1) Transnational romance and marriage, (2) bereavement and the inheritance disputes that break out immediately upon their husbands' death, (3) the loss of social relationships, (4) loneliness, and (5) the post-loss status quo and life arrangements. Several issues of the five themes, such as loneliness and social disconnection, bereavement, marital lives, and current situations of Chinese immigrant widows, are explored and developed by previous researches from different access points or points of view Ng et al, 2016). This group reports a high level of loneliness and depression, with no effective coping mechanisms to mitigate this feeling.…”

Gender differential impact of bereavement on health outcomes: evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, 2011–2015

“…Consistent with those gender disparities, our results indicate that older Chinese women are more likely to suffer from depression after bereavement, and the impact may last for 2 years after bereavement. Fifth, another underlying reason may be attributed to different coping behaviors between men and women [ 11 , 19 , 33 ]. Compared with their men peers who have a task-oriented coping strategy, women are more likely to take emotion-focused copying styles [ 53 ], which may result in women experience more psychiatric symptoms.…”

“…There is also mixed evidence on the gender difference in the effect of spousal bereavement. While the gender difference has been observed in qualitative studies and an online survey in China [ 25 , 32 , 33 ], Li and colleagues report no evidence of a gender difference in the spousal bereavement effect using data from Wuhan during the mid-1990s [ 16 ]. To assess the impact of spousal bereavement on health outcomes in the text of a developing country and to examine the gender difference in such impacts will provide a critical update to the literature.…”

“…We hypothesize that spousal bereavement may lead to depressive symptoms and worse self-assessed health and that such effects may differ between older Chinese men and women. Gender differences in the effect of spousal bereavement on health outcomes may exist because of gender roles expectations [ 25 ], social support [ 32 ], and gender difference in coping with bereavement [ 19 , 33 ].…”

“This Life is Normal for Me”: A Study of Everyday Life Experiences and Coping Strategies of Live-in Carers in Taiwan

“…We understand care as "that range of human experiences which has do to with feeling concern for and taking charge of the well-being of others" (Waerness, 1984, p. 188). Care work is viewed as a basic dimension of social interaction and includes a number of practices related to assisting people with various needs, including personal hygiene, medication, wound care, meals, massage, and rehabilitation exercises to regain language, strength and balance, which are often considered core elements of long-term home-based nursing (Ness et al, 2014). Kittay (2020, p. 3) suggests to using the term "dependency workers" for care providers, and she specifies that in the relationship between a "dependency worker" and a care recipient, there will always be inequality of power (Kittay, 2020, p. 38).…”