Counseling Needs of Widows in Rivers State: Implications for Counseling

Abstract

This study investigated the counselling needs of widows in Rivers State implication for study. Thesample of this study consisted of 2000 widows from Rivers State. These widows were drawn using the purposivesampling technique. The instrument used for the data collection was a self made questionnaire-widows needsassessment questionnaire (WNAQ). This was validated and its reliability coefficient was 0.84 and 66respectively.The WNAQ sought information on widows counselling needs based on their age, family size, size ofchildren and socio-economic background. Each item had 4 point likerf scale set against it. The response optionsranged from strongly needed to needed. Each subject was required to indicate the extent to which widowsneeded guidance or not. Two hypotheses were formulated for the study. T-test statistics was used to test thehypotheses respectively. It was found that widows needed counselling services irrespective of their age andfamily size respectively.There is no significant difference between this counselling need of young widows and their elderly ones.There is no significant difference between the counselling needs of the widows with large families and thosewith small family size. On the basis of these findings, it was recommended that Government should design allhuman rights programme with a gender component to automatically include an assessment of the widow’ssituation and their access to economic and social rights. The widows should be of height priority and finallyprogrammes for the widows’ empowerment are necessary if their rehabilitation is to be achieved.