After I graduated from an air rifle, the first real firearms I shot were a 22 rifle and a 20 gage shotgun. I was 11 years I believe, and was skinny as a pole. With the simple instructions of my father and uncles, I managed the recoil fine. I would say there are few adults who can not handle the recoil of a shotgun with an appropriate LOP stock and a good recoil pad. The biggest problem is too long of a LOP for short people.
I will grant you that, given no training or practice whatsoever, a SW model 10 is the most intuitive weapon to pick up and use. A complete novice will probably grip the revolver in a reasonable fashion, locate the trigger, and realize that pulling the trigger will fire the gun. They will not use the sights, but they will point it at the target. The recoil of the 38 is not so severe that they will drop the gun or be incapable of a second shot.
In short, the 38 revolver is a good choice as a home defense weapon for a novice shooter.
However, with some minimal practice, a shotgun is much much easier to be effective with. I introduced a novice couple to their shotgun some years ago, and these people had no firearm experience. It was a Rem 870 with an 18 inch slug barrel (no choke). I started them shooting low brass 7-1/2 trap loads at 2 liter soda bottles filled with water at a distance of 12 feet. Then we used a portable clay bird machine. After they were breaking 5 out of 10 clay birds, their confidence was pretty high. I did not have any buckshot loads, but we did shoot some magnum goose loads and some deer slugs... I told them the buckshot loads (to be bought later that week) would be more recoil than the trap loads, but probably not as hard as the slugs and magnum loads. After a couple of hours they (and I) were confident that they could use the shotgun effectively to defend themselves in their home.
With many years of shooting experience, I doubt I could hit a clay bird with a handgun.. and yet a complete novice can do it with a shotgun. That tells me exactly how effective a shotgun is.
Jim