The effect of meditation in building resilience among older widows maltreated by children-in-laws

This article reports a two-year study on the impact of a meditation program in building resilience, optimism, peace, and affirming meaning in life for South Asian older widows who faced maltreatment from their children-in-laws. The customized program for the study was effective (Cohen's d range= 2.14-4.19, p <= .01) for the intervention group (pretest n=232, post-test n=218) as compared to the control group (pretest n=232, post-test n=203). Meditation had greater impact on middle class participants, living alone or with kin, financially independent, in good health, Hindus, better educated, who regularly attended the lessons and practiced at home. Intervention adherence mediated the association between socio-demographic predictors and outcomes. With some context-specific modifications for older widows from the upper class, living in institutions, financially dependent on kin, in poor health, Buddhists, and less educated, the meditation program could be an effective intervention in building psychological resources of older widows to deal with maltreatment.