Emotional Experiences of Contesting Parties of Probate of Will in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

This study investigated the emotional experiences, psychological trauma and coping strategies of individuals contesting in probate of will. Employing a mixed-method sequential explanatory design, data was collected among sixty-two bereaved individuals at the Law Courts Complex (Probate Courts 1 and 3) in Accra, using a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview guide. Purposive and snowballing sampling techniques were also employed to identify bereaved individuals who were going through the probate of will at the Probate Courts. The data was analysed using SPSS version 22 and thematic analysis for the in-depth interview. Descriptive statistics, correlation, Chi-Square statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyse the various objectives. The results revealed that 30.6% of the respondents were widows, 27.4% had lost their siblings, 22.6% of them had lost their fathers whiles 14.5% had lost the mothers. The least (4.8%) of the respondents had their wives dead. Also, 59.7% of the participants who were going through the probate of a will were highly educated, thus, had secondary education and 72.6% of them were Christians. The findings showed a strong positive correlation between emotional experiences of participants and their psychological trauma. Also, educational background and religious affiliation of the contestants were significantly associated with their emotional experiences. It is recommended that counselling sessions for bereaved individuals contesting for the probate of will should be enhanced to prevent mental health issues