THE EFFECT OF A LIFE MANAGEMENT SKILLS PROGRAM ON DEPRESSION AND GRIEF IN WIDOWS

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a Life Management Skills Program on depression and grief in recent widows.;The subjects were divided into two groups: Participants (those who were involved in the six weeks Life Management Skills Program) and Non-Participants (those who were involved only in normal, social activities). There were nine and eighteen widows in each group respectively.;The Life Management Skills Program included those skills and information that would assist the widow in dealing with and adjusting to the legal, financial and psychological changes which had occurred as the result of the death of her spouse.;Two research questions were formulated: (1) Are depression scores of widows who participated in a Life Management Skills Program reduced more than those who are non-participants in such a program? (2) Are grief scores of widows who participated in a Life Management Skills Program reduced more than those who are non-participants in such a program?;The approach of the investigation involved administering a pre- and post-test of The Texas Revised Inventory of Grief and The Measurement of Depression scale to all of the participants.;The statistical technique used for all tests of significance was the t-test.;It was concluded that: (1) There was a significant difference in the decline of depression in the participant group at the .05 level when comparing the pre- and post-test scores of the two groups. (2) There was no significant change in the level of grief when comparing the pre- and post-test grief scores of the two groups.