Mujeres mayores de sesenta años con familiares víctimas de desaparición forzada o cometida por particulares en Colombia y Méxicoestrategias de afrontamiento, espiritualidad y depresión

Abstract

Objective. With the purpose of understanding the phenomenon of forced disappearance in older people (women) in order to make visible the psychosocial consequences it has generated for them and their way of dealing with it, this study was proposed under the mixed approach. Method. On the one hand, a qualitative study in which 13 life stories were made to older people (women), relatives of victims of enforced disappearance. Specifically, four in Mexico and nine in Colombia, of three sessions each. The information was triangulated by relatives of victims of enforced disappearance. The data were analyzed under the inductive method with the support of the software Atlas.ti version 7. For the quantitative part, three questionnaires validated in Colombia on the variables of Coping Strategies, Spirituality and Depression were applied to a total sample of 62 women over sixty years, relatives of victims of enforced disappearance. Descriptive statistics and correlations were made with the support of SPSS software version 24. Results. In the comparative qualitative phase, emotional claudication emerges as a stressor factor related to the strong emotional crises suffered by the victims, which would have an impact on their psychosocial well-being. As a coping resource, social support emerges as a key factor for coping with pain. Likewise, different emerging concepts are recognized in the qualitative study as stressors: criminalization of the victim, corrupt silence, threats, x-ray of terror, implicated and indolent State, and as resources, self-awareness. In the quantitative phase carried out in Colombia, it is shown that the victims present economic vulnerability and illiteracy as a result of state abandonment of the territory under study. The signing of the Peace Accords does not diminish fear and a life marked by war. Victimizing events due to contextual violence do not cease. More than half of the surveyed victims show depression, as well as resilient resources to face the adversities inherent to their condition as victims. Positive reappraisal and spiritual beliefs show higher mean of the items. Victims who use problem solving as a coping strategy present higher levels of depression. Likewise, those who have spiritual beliefs, practices and needs. Both coping strategies and spirituality show statistically significant relationships in all dimensions. However, social support vs. spiritual practices presented a negative relationship. Regarding sociodemographic factors, positive reappraisal and problem solving present a significant association with place of origin and current residence. Also, positive reappraisal is associated with the variables Representative positions and Type of missing relative. Cognitive disconnection is significantly associated with the variables Representative positions and State aid. Spiritual practices were related to the place of origin and current place. Likewise, selfawareness and serenity were significantly associated with Type of missing relative and Marital status. Conclusions. Both in Mexico and Colombia, the States continue to present actions of omission, ignominy and acquiescence towards the victim and general population. Victims of forced disappearance present depressive symptoms due to the particularities of this victimizing event. Many were forced to be displaced. Spirituality and coping strategies are crutches to cope with the pain. Organized, they continue to fight for clarification of the facts, truth, access to justice and no more repetition, in the hope of recovering their loved ones, dead or alive. Older women who bear the responsibility for their loved ones, mostly sons or husbands.