Sentimentul de singurãtate si strategiile de coping la persoanele vãduve si divortate
The feeling of loneliness and the coping strategies of the divorced and widowed persons

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this study is to determine the impact of the marital status and locus of control (LC) on the feeling of loneliness and the coping strategies. The main hypothesis is that external LC and the marital status of widow lead to the use of less positive coping strategies and to a greater feeling of social and emotional loneliness. The experimental design is 2 (marital status) x 2 (LC) between subjects. LC was measured with the adapted Rotter (1966) scale, for the coping strategies an inventory was built using the model of Lazarus & Folkman (1984) and for the measure of loneliness an adapted form of Vicenti and Grabolski (1987) scale was used. Subjects are 120 (50 males/70 females, 70 divorced, 50 widowed) aged from 30 to 60 years old. The results confirmed the hypothesis and showed that widowers feel lonelier than divorcees and externalists feel lonelier than subjects with internal LC. No interaction effect was found between the two variables on the feeling of loneliness. Also, subjects with external LC and widowers have less constructive coping strategies, such as distancing and escape/ avoidance, compared to subjects with internal LC and divorcees. No interaction effect was found between the two variables on coping strategies. Men generally show greater social and emotional loneliness compared to women and use less constructive coping strategies.

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