Gender, Preloss Marital Dependence, and Older Adults’ Adjustment to Widowhood

I examine how preloss emotional and instrumental dependence on one's spouse affects older adults' psychological adjustment to widowhood. Analyses are based on 297 persons from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, a prospective study of widowhood among adults aged 65 and older. Women who were most emotionally dependent on their spouses had the poorest self-esteem while still married, yet evidence the highest levels of self-esteem following loss. Men who were most dependent on their wives for home maintenance and financial management tasks experience the greatest personal growth following loss. These results suggest that widowed persons who were once highly dependent upon their spouses reap psychological rewards from the recognition that they are capable of managing on their own. Key Words: bereavement, marital dependence, older adults, personal growth, self-esteem, widowhood. Widowhood is one of the most distressing of all life transitions (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Because families today are expected to be socially and economically autonomous, spouses may be highly dependent on each other, and may have few alternative sources of emotional and instrumental support (Utz, Reidy, Carr, Nesse, & Wortman, in press; Volkart & Michael, 1957). Newly bereaved spouses must adjust to the loss of an enduring emotional relationship, and also must manage the daily decisions and responsibilities that were once shared by the couple (Umberson, Wortman, & Kessler, 1992; Utz et al., in press). Spouses who maintained a rigid gender-typed division of labor in the household may require the most profound behavioral and psychological readjustments upon loss. Some widowed persons who relied heavily on their late spouses may be ill prepared for their new responsibilities, and may become distressed or may seek a spousal substitute to fill the void left by the death. Others, however, may experience improved self-esteem and confidence as they master new skills and manage life on their own. This study examines whether preloss marital dependence affects two aspects of positive adjustment to late-life loss: self-esteem and perceived personal growth. Using data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, 1 address three questions: (a) Is the effect of widowhood on self-esteem contingent upon dependence on one's spouse for instrumental and emotional support? (b) How does preloss marital dependence affect personal growth among the recently bereaved? (c) Do the effects observed in (a) and (b) vary by gender? This research builds on past bereavement scholarship by focusing on positive aspects of adjustment to loss, and by moving beyond a "who suffers worse?" approach, which typically investigates whether men or women cope better with loss. Rather, I recognize that large within-gender differences in marital dependence exist, and I seek to identify those aspects of marital roles and relationships that benefit men and women as they adjust to widowhood. THEORETICAL ISSUES Gender Differences in Reactions to Spousal Loss Gender differences in adjustment to late-life widowhood have been researched extensively, yet results remain inconclusive. Several studies report that widowed women are more distressed than men (e.g., Farnsworth, Pett, & Lund, 1989; Schuster & Butler, 1989; Thompson, Gallagher, Cover, Galewski, & Peterson, 1989), whereas many others find widowhood to have a more adverse effect on men than women (e.g., Lee, Willets, & Seccombe, 1998; Lee, DeMaris, Bavin, & Sullivan, 2001; Umberson et al., 1992). A third group finds no gender differences in the psychological consequences of widowhood (e.g., Gerstel, Riesman, & Rosenfeld, 1985; Lund, Caserta, Dimond, & Snapper, 1989; Zisook & Shuchter, 1991). One explanation for this inconsistency is that until very recently, few studies have directly measured or controlled the specific mechanisms that may account for gender differences in vulnerability to loss, or resilience. …