Centre for Policy on Ageing



Late-life widowhood in the United States — new directions in research and theory
Author(s)	Deborah Carr, Rebecca Utz
Journal title	Ageing International, vol 27, no 1, Winter 2001-02
Pages	pp 65-88
Keywords	Widows ; Widowers ; Bereavement ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America.
Annotation	Widowhood is considered one of the most distressing transitions experienced by older people, yet the bereaved display tremendous variation in their psychological and social adjustment to loss. The authors contend that widowhood is a multifaceted transition, and that its personal consequences are contingent upon macrosocial conditions, such as demographic patterns and gender-based allocation of social roles, dyadic characteristics, including marital quality; and individual level attributes such as gender. The authors also argue that an accurate statistical portrait of late-life widowhood requires that researchers use prospective longitudinal data, contrast the bereaved with members of a non-bereaved control group, and adjust for pre-loss characteristics which influence both the risk of and consequences of widowhood. To illustrate these points, they present new findings from the Changing Lives of Older Couples study (CLOC), a prospective study of older widowed people and matched controls in the US. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020806215 A
Classmark	SP: SPA: DW: 3J: 7T
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.