A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF WIDOWS' GRIEF RESPONSES, COPING PROCESSES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT WITHIN ROY'S ADAPTATION FRAMEWORK.
Contributors: Wayne State University.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 267
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: This ex-post facto descriptive correlational design study of widows during their second year of bereavement examines the relationships among grief responses, coping processes, social support, social network, income/education and spiritual beliefs. The theoretical framework of the study utilizes Roy's (1984) Adaptation Model and the Theory of the Person as an Adaptive System (1981). The bereavement event was conceptualized as the focal stimulus. Social support, social network, income/education and spiritual beliefs were conceptualized as contextual stimuli in the study. The residual stimuli were all the unknown influences in the study. Coping process was conceptualized as an internal control mechanism and an intervening influence on grief response. The focus of the study was on grief response patterns, which were conceptualized as adaptational outcomes.

The study tested two predicted relationships among the concepts. Four research questions about the relationships amongst the concepts were also asked. Data was analyzed using Pearson correlations, canonical correlation and path analyses.

The target population consisted of widows whose husbands had died 13-24 months prior to the study; the convenience sample consisted of 65 women who met study criteria. The results of the study showed that women were still actively grieving during their second year of bereavement. There was a great deal of variability between and within individuals' grief responses. Study findings supported some of the links in the theoretical model. Coping process was inversely related to grief response. Social support and social network were positively related to coping process. Income/education and spiritual beliefs did not appear to be significantly related to coping process.

The strength of the relationship among the contextual stimuli, coping process and grief response varied substantially when coping and grief response subscale scores were used in the analysis instead of total scores. Sixty-seven to 81% of variance was explained when using subscale scores in the canonical correlational analyses while only 18% of the variance was explained in the path analysis where total scales were used.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-12, Section: B, page: 6320.

Thesis (PH.D.)--WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, 1991.

School code: 0254.