سرپرست خانوار

The purpose of this research is to understand the meaning and description of widowhood from the perspective of women who have experienced this phenomenon due to the death of their husbands. Phenomenology was used to conduct the research. The data was collected through interviews with 5 widows in Yazd city. The findings show that women struggle with deep psychological pressures and tensions at first, and maybe they are also present in the role of mothers and the pressures and responsibilities of their children are also on them, which suddenly gives psychological shock. beside the tension and psychological injuries, these women are subjected to normative pressures and harms inflicted on them by the society and the people around them after facing the phenomenon of widowhood. After the death of their husbands, these women are in poverty. The experience of widowhood did not only bring harm and tension to these women, but also caused them to grow and saved many of them from being dependent and weak, and in each of their conversations, the theme of maturity in the crisis is represented as their common lived experience.

One of the most important aspects of global family changes in modern times is the increasing divorce rates. Divorce has various determinants at both the micro and macro levels. This study aims to examine how demographic, economic, and social factors affect marital status (i.e. married versus divorced) in Iran, and to estimate the probability of divorce at the individual and provincial levels using multilevel models. 

Methods and Data:

 Census data from 1976 to 2016, Labor Force Survey, Household Income and Expenditure Survey, Time Use Survey, and Civil Registration data were used for the analysis. For individual-level analysis, 25,163 women and 18,633 men were selected using systematic random sampling from the 2% file of the 2016 Census. At provincial-level, analysis was conducted for 31 provinces in the country were included.

The findings show that age, illiteracy, inactiveness and living in a residential unit of other types increase the probability of divorce for men; however, being the head of household and having a higher education decrease divorce for men. Moreover, residing in a city, illiteracy, education and having children increase the probability of divorce for women. At the provincial level, the sex ratio increases the probability of divorce for men and the ratio of urbanization increases the probability of divorce for women. 

The results suggest that micro and macro level variables have a combined effect on divorce outcomes. Although most of the studies on divorce are done at the individual level, more attention should be paid to the influence of people's living environment on their decision to divorce.

Key Message:

 Most of the studies in the field of divorce are done at the individual level. Few of them have been investigated only at the level of macro-provincial variables. In this study, we showed that in order to better understand the factors of divorce, individual factors and the macro variables should be studied together.

The empowerment has been known as controlling decision making about his or her life and ability for interventions in all their life challenges (Baig et al., 2018). Women empowerment can improve sustainability in development fields (Akhter & Cheng, 2020). Empowerment conception not only comprises extrinsic control but it also is included the development of intrinsic capabilities (Abrar-ul-Haq, Jali, & Islam, 2018). It has been reported that the development of the empowerment in women is a pivotal actors for improving productivity and food security in rural areas (Sharaunga, Mudhara, & Bogale, 2016).Food security is the measure of the availability of food and individuals' ability to access it. According to the United Nations' Committee on World Food Security, food security is defined as meaning that all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Female-headed households who live in rural areas are faced with serious challenges in their life, because they should manage their life and supply their life costs. In Iran, some supporting institutions support female-headed households but their pensions are not sufficient to manage their life. It was recently reported that 32% of Iranian families are living in food insecurity (Pakravan-Charvadeh et al., 2020).Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of job empowerment on food security of rural female-headed households under supervision of the Welfare Organization. Statistical population of the current study included 495 women based on the data collected from Statistical Center of Iran and 216 women were selected with the help of Cochran’s formula. Tehran province was divided into ten rural districts and each district was considered as a classification. A self-designed questionnaire consisting from 11 variables were used for job empowerment of women comprising grouping work and communication skills (n= 7 items), creativity and solving problem (n= 6 items), commitment and responsibility (n= 6 items), information and specific knowledge (n= 5 items) and technical skills and operational work (n= 5 items). A five-point Likert scale was considered for each variable ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). A standard questionnaire comprising accessibility (n= 6 items), availability (n= 6 items), utilization (n= 7 items) and stability (n= 4 items) was used for food security construct. A six-point Likert scale was considered for each variable ranging from 0 (any) to 5 (very high). The data were also collected for age, education, job, family size, and annual income. To investigate the effects of constructs of job empowerment on food security, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. The results showed that the age mean of the women-headed households in rural areas was 48.28 with standard deviation of 11.55 years. Mean and standard deviation for constructs were as follows; grouping work and communication skills (2.77 ± 0.88), creativity and solving problem (3.01 ± 0.90), commitment and responsibility (3.26 ± 1.02), information and specific knowledge (2.94 ± 0.94), technical skills and operational work (3.22 ± 1.00), access (2.23 ± 0.84), availability (2.42 ± 0.80), utilization (2.69 ± 1.10) and stability (2.57 ± 0.74). The results for model-fitting showed that job empowerment and food security had a good fit for the data with fit indices (χ2/df=1.85, CFI=0.92; NFI= 0.96; RMSEA=0.032). The results show that indices are appropriate and the model has a good fit. The results showed that job empowerment could determine 57.50% of food security variance. In conclusion, this study showed that factors of grouping work and communication skills, creativity and solving problem, commitment and responsibility and information and specific knowledge had significant effects on job empowerment of female-headed households in rural areas of Iran country. With regards to the effects of the factors on empowerment, policy makers must consider policies for improving job empowerment. To improve food security and job empowerment in rural region, we suggest establishing centers by supporting institutions for education of skills and also identification of creative women for improving their abilities. We also suggest education of new information and knowledge by media and other organizations for improving job empowerment. We also suggest education of technical skills for prevention of injures and improving abilities in female-headed households in rural areas. In sum, it is recommended to consider the job empowerment for improving food security for improving food security of rural female-headed households under supervision of the Welfare Organization.

Women heads of households are considered as women who are heads of households without regular presence or support of a man. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social frustration and social intelligence with life expectancy in female heads of households.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and structural equation model in terms of descriptive method. The statistical population of the study included all female-headed households in Kashmar city (n = 105) in 1300-1400. Due to the limited research population, the census method was used. Measurement tools included the Martin Iussen and Dahl Social Intelligence Questionnaire (2001), the Schneider Life expectancy Questionnaire (1991), and the Harrington Social Frustration Questionnaire (2005). Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equations.

The results showed that there is a significant relationship between social frustration with social intelligence and life expectancy of women heads of households. In addition, in order to achieve how much the causal model presented in the path analysis diagram explains the variance of the dependent variable, the coefficient of determination R was used. Based on the obtained R for all variables, 94% of the total changes of the dependent variable are explained by the analytical model.

Considering the mentioned results and the importance of women's mental health, especially the special concerns of women heads of households and the possibility of high social frustration of this group of women, it is very important to pay attention to their psycho-social empowerment. Therefore, by promoting the psychosocial empowerment of women heads of households, basic steps can be taken to reduce the psychosocial problems of this segment of society.

After the 2008 crisis, the concept of resilience was introduced as one of the most important key factors in reducing vulnerability to crises. After this period, studies were more intensively done around this concept, to which special attention was paid in social sciences and sociology. Yet, studying the concept of resilience and paying attention to it in different dimensions is more important to countries with a high risk. One of the most risky countries with both natural and unnatural causes is Iran, a country that frequently faces various economic shocks and crises in terms of both its geographical location and type of connection to the outside world. Each type of crisis can threaten livelihoods of families and reduce welfare in the society. Lack of attention to the concept of resilience has caused the Iranian society to undergo a crisis period in recent years. It no longer has its normal function. In such an event, people's participations in the overcoming process of crisis have decreased and the negative effects of risks have increased. Due to the high impact of resilience on enhancing social resistance and the declining trend of social harms, as well as the need for the further study of the Iranian society in this area, the present research focused on the concept of resilience despite providing its accurate description. Also, it tried to identify the extent of its impact on the economic actions of households in adverse economic conditions with regard to its current situation in various dimensions.  

The current investigation was of a survey type, besides being of an applied type due to the possibility of using its results by the authorities. The statistical population of this study included all the household heads in Mashhad City in 2022. According to the statistical yearbook of 2016, this city had a population of 3001184 people and consisted of 817250 families. It should be noted that the sample individuals had the necessary dispersion to obtain valid and generalizable information and data. In other words, different social classes were sufficiently present in the sample. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was calculated to include 399 people, which increased to 450 people so as to better allocate the sample to the subgroups of the statistical population and prevent error reduction. Finally, by removing the unusable items, the sample size was determined to consist of 427 people. Also, a proportionally allocated stratified sampling method was applied. In this way, an attempt was made to equally examine the different social classes of the households. 

In summary, it should be noted that the subjects’ economic actions were analyzed in the 3 areas of resistance, recovery, and creative economic actions, the application of each of which was affected by different variables. The important point to be mentioned in this section was the household heads’ tendencies to use resistance and then recovery actions. In other words, in the current situation, the heads of the households first tried to use resistance economic actions to earn a living and lead their daily lives. The majority of people sought to provide subsistence for themselves and their families on a daily basis and was less inclined to take long-term economic actions. This was understandable in our society, where most people had an income of less than 5 million tomans. By increasing the cost of living in the society, only the extended use of resistance actions could sustain household economy. The results also showed that the households tended to use economic recovery actions. This tendency, however, was more prevalent in the middle-class households. In other words, the households that were relatively better off financially tried to return to their pre-crisis conditions (recent economic turmoil and Corona epidemic) by using actions based on ​recovery strategies. Regarding creative actions, the results revealed that the use of these actions was increasing with the increase of the households’ social class.Creative economic activities had the highest average level in the upper classes and the lowest average level in the lower classes. This result is in line with those obtained by Royla et al. (2017). The researchers also found that by changing the social classes of the households and individuals, their types of action and economic action strategies altered. Finally, according to the results of the present study, it should be noted that paying attention to the concept of resilience can be very effective in overcoming the difficult and critical situations in societies. In addition to reducing the destructive effects of various economic shocks, resilience of any societies and their individuals provides the conditions for their growth and progress.

Women heads of households do not have enough time to properly educate and provide appropriate emotional, informational and financial support to their children and control their behaviors and actions due to the interference of the breadwinner with the role of housewife and the pressure of the role. The aim of this study was to compare the mental health status of working women heads of households and spouses of education in Ilam province and for this purpose the survey research method was used comparatively and using random sampling among working women heads of households 351 employed women were selected. The average mental health among working women is 28.7 and among working women is 19.7. The average dimension of mental health among working women with a husband is lower than working women heads of households. The prevalence of mental disorders in four dimensions has shown that the most mental disorders among working women heads of households are related to the dimension of anxiety and physical symptoms and the least disorder is related to the dimension of depression.

The purpose of this study was to investigate some demographic, economic and social variables on marital status (married / divorced) and calculate divorce risk. In this study, data from 2% of the population census of 2016 were used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the data. In this study demographic variables such as gender, age, child bearing for women, migration; economic variables such as activity status, household ownership status, housing unit size and social variables such as type of household supervision, literacy status, education status, number of years of education and a college degree was related with marital status (divorced / married).. The findings indicated that the behavior of divorced men and women was quite different. Divorced men want to join another family after a divorce, while divorced women form a new family. Higher education and having children for women reduces the chances of divorce. Divorced women are on the job market because of divorce. The odds of divorce for unemployed and inactive men are 2.5 and 1.3 times higher than for employed men, respectively.

The purpose of this study was to comparison of effectiveness of therapy based on Glaser choice theory and acceptance and commitment therapy on life expectancy and resilience of women heading households in Tehran city. This experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of this study included all the women heading households in Tehran city in year 2019, 45 women heading households were considered as the sample size in two experimental groups (each group of 10 women heading households) and control (10 women heading households). The experimental groups underwent therapy based on Glaser choice theory (12 sessions 60 minutes) and acceptance and commitment therapy (12 sessions 60 minutes), but the control group received no training. To collect data Adult Dispositional Hope Scale (ADHS) of Snyder and et al (1991) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) in year 2003. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-24 software in two sections: descriptive and inferential (multivariable analyze of covariance and Bonferroni). The results showed that both of the therapy based on Glaser choice theory and acceptance and commitment therapy used in this study can significantly improve the life expectancy and resilience of women heading households. But the erapy based on Glaser choice theory has a greater impact on life expectancy and resilience of women heading households. Based on the results of this study, therapy based on Glaser choice theory and acceptance and commitment therapy are effective interventions on m life expectancy and resilience, but the effect of the therapy based on Glaser choice theory was greater

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of female-headed households in many developed and developing countries, In recent decades, more than one-third of households are made up of women due to divorce, definitive lonely and immigration.The method used in this study is documentary and library research and meta-analysis and including 59 articles and theses related to the topic of female-headed household.The results on the four dimensions of economic status, education and skills, social networks and relationships, mental health have show that the first and most important concerns of female-headed household are economic and employment problems. Other important problems for these women include all kinds of physical and mental problems, illiteracy, illiteracy, lack of education, low-income or informal employment opportunities, unstable and low income, lack of security in social interactions, Relationship violence experience, social exclusion, lack of economic socialization, lack of self-confidence, lack of social and occupational skills, lack of access to resources and while these women have little legal protection.Female-headed household have to play multiple roles in society that often they are in conflict with each other, and this causes them to have physical, psychological, and economic, communication and ... problems. Therefore, considering the issues facing them, it is necessary to supportive institutions and policymakers intervene to develop protective programs to improve the economic, physical and psychological well-being of these women.

The present study investigates the distribution of women headed households under the auspices of the rescue Emam Khomeini Committee at the 421 cities of the country and examines their correlation with some social and economic factors. The research method in such a research are applied and descriptive-analytical. The data of the research have been extracted from the statistical journal of 2015 and the general census of population and housing in 2016. Such a research is used the Hot Spot method and the local and global Moran's I and LISA statistics as ESDA approaches to analyze the data. Findings indicate that the highest percentage of studied women in such a research case are distributed mostly in south east, northeast, and southwest of the country. The spatial distribution of female headed households supported by the Relief Committee and its correlation with the percentage of homeless women due to husband's death is the high - high pattern in the provinces of the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Kerman, Hormozgan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad, Kermanshah, Gilan, Golestan and Khorasan Razavi. Such a pattern is true about the percentage of homeless women due to divorce in some cities located in the provinces of South Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Fars, North Khorasan, Golestan and Gilan; and also in the case of villager rate in some cities of Sistan and Baluchestan, Kerman, Hormozgan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Golestan, Gilan, North Khorasan, and Razavi. the percentage of unemployed women in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad follow from high-high pattern, too. Other cities in the country follow a specific pattern of solidarity, according to local regional requirements.

This article is going to discover and explain policies of 4th, 5th and 6th development plans on the empowering of women headed family. Divorced women, widows, single and married women who their husbands are not able to work, are meant by women headed family. To empower this group of women necessitate to consider two factors: advancement and women’s agency. The main question is examining of two factors within development plans for empowering women headed family. Findings of the research based on qualitative content analysis method are presenting that development plans have not been effective in enhancing women's empowerment in the area of access to resources and presence in social networks and markets. It only limited to financial support and in some context social support. This kind of policy would not lead to reduce women’s poverty in the long run.

The sudden transfer of guardianship, from husband to wife, causing a string of insecurity and additional duties for women. The phenomenon of woman-headed households is increasing for different reasons in the world. Studies indicate that, householder women are facing social and Economic challenges and constraints. The aim of this study is pathology of social interactions women-headed households in ShahinShahr-Iran. In this study, a qualitative approach and grounded theory method were used to learn about social interactions women headed households, According to own definition for Operations Research and data analysis. The Purposeful and theoretical sampling is employed for the selection of the interviewees and for this study, Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 35 householder women. After open, axial, and selective coding, the 10 main categories, paradigm and underlying models is presented. The main components are: dysfunctional underlying family, Negative stereotypes, Compatibility abnormal, Prohibiting attitude, financial poverty, Limits on work and the necessity of social protection. The final major phenomenon in this study is unsafe Privacy. According to these categories householder woman experience their social interactions in the form of unsafe Privacy. The main phenomenon as a paradigmatic model, including; conditions, actions strategies and outcomes as well as more abstract theory called the porous borders maker is provided.

Since women headed households are considered as the vulnerable class of society due to reasons including: divorce, death, addiction and husband disablement, this study attempts to investigate socio-cultural factors influencing Tabriz women headed household and their ability degrees. The present research was a cross-sectional survey. Based on Cochran’s formula, the sample size was determined to be 288. The cluster sampling method helped to choose the sample members. The Questionnaires were distributed to collect required data and information. In this study, ability was measured from psychological, economic, social and political aspects. The validity of the data collection tool was ensured through a content validity and its reliability was tested through Cronbach's alpha. The finding of research showed that education, mass media, social support, physical health and food variables have positive and significant relationship with women households ability, however traditionalism and marital life condition has not significant relationship with the ability of women headed household. Multi regression results indicated that five variables including: mass media, health, social support, nutrition condition, and educational level have significant effect on ability degree and health plays the most important role among them in explaining the ability variable.

This research aimed at exploring the effectiveness of encouragement training on promotion of general self-efficacy and resiliency of household-headed women. Research method was semi-experimental and in the form of pretest and post-test with control group. Samples containing 28 household-headed women were selected by voluntary sampling and they were assigned randomly in two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 10 sessions of 120 minutes training, whereas the control group didnt receive any training. Both groups were evaluated by the General self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer, 1982) and Resiliency scale (Conner & Davidson, 2003) before and after the training intervention. Results showed that a significant difference between experimental and control group, and this difference was in advantage of the trained group; encouragement training significantly increased the general self-efficacy and resilience of household-headed females in experimental group. Encouragement training can promote the general self-efficacy and resiliency of the female-headed household.

Housing is one of the basic needs for every household and the formation of new households means more demand for new residential units. When the nuclear family with an independent and neolocal residence pattern becomes prevalence, possessing a private housing is amongst the important priorities that families tend to have during their life cycle. This paper examines how the characteristics of the head of households are related to the probability of dwelling tenure in Iran. Using individual-level data from 2011 national census, the paper estimate bivariate and multivariate models to assess how the probability of dwelling stock according to tenure is related to differences in the economic, social and demographic characteristics of the heads of households. to the characteristics of the heads of households in terms of his/her gender, place of residence, rual-urban origin, marital status, employment status, educational attainment, age and the household size. Around 29% of the variance in housing ownership possibilities can be explained using these variables. More researches is needed to examine the role of housing in the basket of household spending priorities, pressures of housing costs on family economy, and even the relation of housing ownership status to such demographic decisions of couples and families as marriage and family formation of youth, having or not having children, the number and timing of children and so on.