Patterns of Adjustment to Partner Loss in Old Age: The Widowhood Adaptation Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The present longitudinal study aims to explain emotional and social loneliness experienced by older adults ( N=99) during two-and-a-half years of widowhood. Utilization of multilevel analysis and a “visual” cluster analysis with prescribed classification criteria enabled us to search for average adaptational developments as well as individual variability in the adjustment process. Results were interpreted within the theory of mental incongruity. Adjustment to loneliness appears to develop along different individual-specific curves. About 30 percent of the bereaved had not adapted in two-and-a-half years to their loss in terms of emotional loneliness. Presence of favorable opportunities such as good health and high self-esteem as well as coping efforts like social behavior resulted in lower levels of emotional and social loneliness. It is concluded that the adjustment process among older bereaved does not exist. Moreover, including measures of cognitions and attitudes that are related to the relational needs and desires of widow(er)s may enlarge our knowledge of how older adults adapt to partner death.