This study investigated the various adjustment strategies employed by widows in coping with widowhood stress in Rivers State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the conduct of the study at 0.05 alpha levels. A sample of 370 widows in Rivers State was drawn from the population through proportional stratified random sampling technique. Two instruments namely; Stress Level Scale for Widows (SLSW) and Questionnaire for Widows Adjustment Strategies (QWAS), both developed by the researcher were used for data collection. Data were analysed with mean, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance and the statistical package known as SPSS for widows was employed for the analyses. Results showed that; all the eight adjustment strategies (problem solving, cognitive restructuring, express emotion, social support, problem avoidance, wishful thinking, self-criticism and social withdrawal) are adopted by widows in ameliorating widowhood stress; ethnic group of widows’ influences their adjustment strategies to widowhood stress. Based on the findings of this work, three appropriate recommendations were made.
Keywords: Adjustment, Rivers State, Strategies., Stress, Widowhood
