General Health and Alienation Status of Divorced Women in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper is part of a broader research study on “Psycho-social and Economic Conditions of Divorced Women in Bangladesh” conducted by the author. The study tries to explore the general health and alienation status of divorced women of Bangladesh using two scales namely General Health Questionnaire and Alienation developed by Goldberg and Hiller, 1979, and Kureshi and Dutt, 1979 in order to assess the health and alienation status. These scales measured on somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, severe depression, despair, disillusionment, psychological vacuum, unstructured universe and narcissism. The findings of the study revealed that only 5.5 per cent divorced women are normal. Among the 200 divorced women 31.0 per cent had all kinds of psychiatric problems. All most all (94.5 per cent) divorced women had alienation problem. The researcher drawn two hypotheses firstly, divorced women who are working are psychologically depressed than that the women who are not. Secondly, women who are divorced by their spouses have experienced greater sense of alienation implying that self divorcees are not greater alienated. Chi-squire and t test has been used to prove the hypotheses. Results indicate in first hypothesis is that there is no significant difference at the level of psychological depression. The second hypothesis was statistically significant indicating that self-divorcees are less alienated than the divorced were initiated by their spouses (the women who were divorced by their spouse).

Keywords: Marriage, Divorce, Women, Alienation

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