A Co-twin--Control Study of Response to Widowhood

P. Liechtenstein · Margaret Gatz · Nancy L. Pedersen · Gerald E. McClearn

70 citations0/0 files storedThe Journals of Gerontology Series B

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning Aging and Gerontology Research

Abstract

The effects of long-term and recent conjugal bereavement were investigated in a sample of 2,104 Swedish twins followed between 1984 and 1993. In co-twin-control analyses, the bereaved twin experienced significantly more depressive symptoms, more loneliness, and less life satisfaction than the married co-twin. This association existed for recently widowed (< 3 years) of both sexes. Long-term widowed (> 5 years) reported more loneliness than married individuals, and for women there was also a difference in life satisfaction. There were no effects of bereavement on perceived physical health. Individual analyses, which included all respondents regardless of the co-twin's bereavement status, showed the same pattern of results. There was also evidence for an anticipation effect of widowhood indicated by elevated depressive symptoms prior to the spouse's death. Finally, longitudinal analyses showed that it is more stressful to be bereaved when young-old than old-old, but revealed no age differences in adaptation.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 70 citations exist upstream.

References

1977The CES-D Scale 1990Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences 1989The myths of coping with loss.1969An Analysis of a Short Self-Report Measure of Life Satisfaction: Correlation With Rater Judgments 1993Handbook of Bereavement 1978Multidimensional Functional Assessment: The OARS Methodology. A Manual 1987Long-term effects of losing a spouse or child in a motor vehicle crash.1988Bereavement and Health: The Psychological and Physical Consequences of Partner Loss.

Cited by

1999The impact of widowhood on depression: findings from a prospective survey 2012Beyond the Myths of Coping with Loss: Prevailing Assumptions Versus Scientific Evidence 2012Parental bereavement during mid-to-later life: Pre- to postbereavement functioning and intrapersonal resources for coping.

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.