BEREAVEMENT, BIOLOGICAL HEALTH RISKS, AND PHYSICAL HEALTH: THE MODERATING EFFECT OF COPING

Abstract

This study uses data from the National Survey of Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) to examine the longitudinal effect of bereavement on physical health via biological health risks, focusing on the moderating effect of coping. Conditional process models were estimated using data from 701 respondents who participated in the MIDUS II (M2: 2004–2006), MIDUS II biomarker data collection (2004–2009) and in MIDUS III (M3: 2013–2014). We analyzed data from two groups, respondents who experienced the death of an individual close to them (163 women, 120 men) and respondents who did not experience any deaths of close individuals during the same period (226 women, 192 men), controlling for age, education, marital status, prior family bereavement, number of life events since M2, and health status. Biological health risks were assessed by allostatic load score, summing 7 subscales of physiological dysregulation (e.g., sympathetic, parasympathetic, inflammation, cardiovascular dysregulation). The results show that women who experienced bereavement reported poorer self-rated health longitudinally and had a higher level of allostatic load at biomarker data collection, which was significantly associated with poorer self-rated health approximately 10 years later. For men, however, bereavement was not associated with poorer self-rated health. In addition, the results indicate that coping moderated this relationship; bereaved women who reported higher levels of coping were less vulnerable to the detrimental longitudinal impacts of bereavement on health. Overall, the findings suggest that bereavement has longitudinal adverse health impacts via allostatic load for women, contingent on their coping strategies.