Coping Mechanisms of Divorced and Widowed Older Women to Mitigate Economic Exclusion: A Qualitative Study in Turkey and Serbia
Year: 2021
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Many old adults are faced with the risk of social exclusion, which inhibits them from enjoying a satisfactory quality of life. Accordingly, understanding this multidimensional and multifaceted complex phenomena is crucial for building an inclusive society. Hence, studies concentrating on vulnerable groups with higher probability of economic forms of exclusion, such as widowed or divorced materially deprived women, are valuable as exclusion necessitates different actions for different segments of the older population. Against this background, this chapter investigates resilience and coping mechanisms of materially deprived widowed and separated/divorced older women. Data is taken from a qualitative study in Turkey and Serbia, two EU candidate countries with different enabling environments and social protections for older people, but with a similar level of connectedness within extended families. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with materially deprived divorced and widowed women, aged 65 years and older were conducted. The data was analysed based on the framework method. The analysis identifies the economic exclusion experienced by these women, along with the resilience and the different coping mechanisms that they demonstrate. Furthermore, it makes a cross-country comparison between Turkey and Serbia laying out similarities and differences between the two nations on this topic.
Language: English
Subfield: Life-span and Life-course Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3144216982