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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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What we want
— older widows and widowers speak for themselves | | Author(s) | Kate Davidson |
| Journal title | Practice, vol 12, no 1, 2000 |
| Pages | pp 45-54 |
| Keywords | Widows ; Widowers ; Bereavement ; Adjustment ; Personal relationships ; Friendship ; Interviewing. |
| Annotation | Social workers helping older people who have been bereaved may find the issue of remarriage crops up in discussion. It may be helpful to develop ideas in respect of this issue, and this article sets the context and discusses the choices and expectations involved. The article arises from the author's study of gendered differences in the meanings of widowhood to older men and women in the medium and long term after the loss of their spouse. Respondents were born before 1930 (at least 65 years old at the time of interview), widowed for a minimum of two years, and had not remarried. 25 widows and 26 widowers were interviewed in depth, with a semi-structured interview guide, and encouraged to talk about their history, marriage, present life and future. The principal theme that emerged was of new partnership formation and the feasibility and desirability of such action, in other words, the constraints and choices around sharing one's life again. The analysis revealed a complex picture of relationship and friendship matrices which transcended the simple dichotomy of whether or not an older widow or widower wished to remarry. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-000504201 A |
| Classmark | SP: SPA: DW: DR: DS: DS:SX: 3DL |
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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