Grief and its relationship with coping and resilience strategies in a group of women victims of the Colombian internal armed conflict

Abstract

In the context of the Colombian armed conflict, women have been the most affected, with the grief process being the most deficient due to the lack of psychosocial support. The objective of this study was to describe resilience and coping strategies in a sample of women victims of the armed conflict and their relationship with the stages of grief experienced. The methodology used was a quantitative, descriptive, non-experimental, ex post facto approach. Twenty women victims of the armed conflict who were in different stages of grief due to the loss of their loved ones as a result of the armed conflict participated in the study. The Resilience Scale SV-RES for youth and adults by Saavedra and Villalta (2008), the Coping Strategies Inventory adapted by Cano, Rodríguez, and García (2006), and the Grief Phases Scale by Miaja and Moral (2013) were used. Results: Deficiencies in the use of coping strategies were identified in the study sample, with a higher frequency of use of non-functional strategies. Women who were in more advanced stages of grief showed the use of more functional coping strategies. No correlation between stages of grief and time since loss was identified. Conclusions: The results suggest that the process of coping and grief elaboration in the sample of women victims of the armed conflict is not related to the time elapsed since their loss, but rather to the use of personological resources.