Abstract
The death of the loved ones is one of the most stressful events which can happen to a person's life. Previous literature had identified gender differences as one of the factors that influenced humans' coping mechanism post-loss. However, there is limited knowledge in gender differences post-loss in Asia especially. This paper is aimed to understand the gender differences in coping mechanisms after the death of their loved ones among Malaysians. A convenience sample (N = 90: n Males = 45; n Female = 45) of visitors at one of the Northern region hospital in Malaysia were surveyed. The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC) was administered. The statistical program, SPSS (Statistical Programme for the Social Sciences) Student Version 17.0, was used to process the data collected from the participants. Using Mann-Whitney test and T-Independent test, it was found there is no significant difference between genders in choosing most of the coping mechanisms after the loss of their loved ones except for self-controlling coping mechanism. Findings from this study were contradicted to literature that found gender differences in coping mechanism after the death of loved ones. Hence, this study suggests that gender is not the main factor in determining how people cope with their losses. However, more studies in this area are vital to gain more understanding in gender-related coping mechanisms.
Highlights
Death is a natural occurrence which every living organism will encounter
One of the most discussed issues were the ability for bereaved individuals to cope with their losses with the influenced of their gender [2, 20]; [24]
As the data regarding the relationships between gender and positive reappraisal, planning problem solving, escape avoidance, accepting responsibilities, self-controlling, distancing and confronting coping mechanisms showed not normal distributions, Mann-Whitney U test was employed in analyzing the significant differences between genders in their chosen coping mechanisms
Summary
Death is a natural occurrence which every living organism will encounter. death is one of the most difficult events to encounter [26]. The bereaved individuals may experience the loss of identity, the loss of relationship with the loved ones, the loss of place and the loss of capacity [10]. After the death of loved one, bereaved individuals may experience a complex process which to live with memories and to cope with their losses. One of the most discussed issues were the ability for bereaved individuals to cope with their losses with the influenced of their gender [2, 20]; [24]. There are limited studies related to gender coping mechanisms especially related to grief in Malaysia. This study is aimed to understand the gender-related coping mechanisms among Malaysian. Even though there were studies related gender differences coping mechanisms the understanding on gender coping mechanism after the death of loved ones in Malaysia is still limited
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