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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Effects of emotional expression on adjustment to spousal loss among older adults | | Author(s) | Daniel L Segal, Jay A Bogaards, Lee A Becker |
| Journal title | Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 5, no 4, Winter 1999 |
| Pages | pp 297-310 |
| Keywords | Bereavement ; Spouses ; Depression ; Psychiatric treatment ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Loss of a spouse in older age can cause a greater disruption in the life of an individual than the loss of a spouse at an earlier age. The aim of this study was to examine the therapeutic effects of verbally disclosing thoughts and feelings about loss of spouse in 30 distressed bereaved older adults participating in an exposure intervention according to the paradigm developed by Pennebaker (1985). Participants were randomly assigned to treatment (four 20-minute vocal expression sessions within a 2-week period) or delayed treatment. No immediate effects of treatment were found with the exception that participants receiving treatment showed a decrease in hopelessness relative to participants in delayed treatment. After treatment was provided to the delayed-treatment group, combined data from both groups indicated significant decrease in hopelessness, intrusive thoughts, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and depression. Feelings of painfulness and negative affect decreased steadily over sessions. The findings suggest that confronting painful feelings can potentially reduce psychological distress among bereaved older people. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000120203 A |
| Classmark | DW: SN: ENR: LP: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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