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Short-term reactions to the death of a spouse and/or close friend in later life Lehman, Allen J.
Abstract
The death of a friend and the death of a spouse frequently accompany later life . The former has received scant empirical attention and the bereavement overload occasioned by the combination of these losses only has been addressed in the conceptual literature. This study used data from the Canadian national Survey on Ageing and Independence (1991), and examined the short-term reactions of women and men aged 65 and older to the death of a close friend, a spouse, or both, in comparison with a non-bereaved group. Drawing on Weiss' (1993) conceptual perspective on loss, bereaved individuals' "recovery" or adjustment to loss was assessed on multiple dimensions of effective personal and social functioning: perceived health, negative affect, positive affect, social involvement, emotional investment, family satisfaction, and friend satisfaction . Based on Weiss* (1993) model that maintains the loss of a relationship of attachment (i.e., spouse) evokes more intense bereavement reactions than the loss of a relationship of community (i.e., close friend), it was predicted that the negative effects of bereavement would be the greatest for the spouse bereaved, which would be significantly greater than the peer bereaved, which would be significantly greater than the non-bereaved. A further expectation was that reactions of the multiple bereaved individuals would be equal to or greater than the spouse bereaved. Several expected as well as unexpected findings were revealed. Four primary patterns of findings included: (a) only for the measure of negative affect were the bereavement status comparisons consistent with predictions; (b) spouse and multiple bereaved individuals' indicated comparable levels of functioning; (c) the peer bereaved unexpectedly reported greater effective personal and social functioning than the non-bereaved; and (d) gender influenced levels of functioning, with women tending to indicate better functioning than men. This study provides a greater understanding of older adults' reactions to the loss of close interpersonal relationships and sheds light on the nature and meaning of close interpersonalties in later life . Suggestions are offered for future research.
Item Metadata
Title |
Short-term reactions to the death of a spouse and/or close friend in later life
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1996
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Description |
The death of a friend and the death of a spouse frequently
accompany later life . The former has received scant empirical
attention and the bereavement overload occasioned by the
combination of these losses only has been addressed in the
conceptual literature. This study used data from the Canadian
national Survey on Ageing and Independence (1991), and examined
the short-term reactions of women and men aged 65 and older to
the death of a close friend, a spouse, or both, in comparison
with a non-bereaved group. Drawing on Weiss' (1993) conceptual
perspective on loss, bereaved individuals' "recovery" or
adjustment to loss was assessed on multiple dimensions of
effective personal and social functioning: perceived health,
negative affect, positive affect, social involvement, emotional
investment, family satisfaction, and friend satisfaction . Based
on Weiss* (1993) model that maintains the loss of a relationship
of attachment (i.e., spouse) evokes more intense bereavement
reactions than the loss of a relationship of community (i.e.,
close friend), it was predicted that the negative effects of
bereavement would be the greatest for the spouse bereaved, which
would be significantly greater than the peer bereaved, which
would be significantly greater than the non-bereaved. A further
expectation was that reactions of the multiple bereaved
individuals would be equal to or greater than the spouse
bereaved. Several expected as well as unexpected findings were
revealed. Four primary patterns of findings included: (a) only
for the measure of negative affect were the bereavement status
comparisons consistent with predictions; (b) spouse and multiple bereaved individuals' indicated comparable levels of functioning;
(c) the peer bereaved unexpectedly reported greater effective
personal and social functioning than the non-bereaved; and (d)
gender influenced levels of functioning, with women tending to
indicate better functioning than men. This study provides a
greater understanding of older adults' reactions to the loss of
close interpersonal relationships and sheds light on the nature
and meaning of close interpersonalties in later life .
Suggestions are offered for future research.
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Extent |
6396091 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-03-16
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0087810
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1996-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.