Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction: A Cross-sectional Study of Working versus Non-working, Married and Unmarried Women in Today’s Challenging Times

Abstract

During early 2020, every being on this earth was in some way or the other affected by the deadly coronavirus. One section of the society which was burdened the most was the women. The present paper focuses on the psychological distress and life satisfaction among working and non-working married/unmarried women. A sample of 160 women (80 working women and 80 non-working women) belonging to an age range of 25–50 years was selected. Both groups consisted of 40 married and 40 unmarried women. “The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10)” by Kessler and Mroczek (1992) and “Satisfaction with Life Scale” by Diener et al. (1985) were administered to assess Psychological distress and life satisfaction. Findings showed that there was a significant difference in the psychological distress and life satisfaction between married and unmarried women. No significant interaction effect was observed between marital status and employability, while a significant interaction effect of marital status and employability on life satisfaction was found. The results clearly implicate that there is an urgent need for everyone to be sensitive to the overall well-being of women, who are the backbone of family, society, and country at large.