Abstract
Bereavement is an ongoing process of negotiation and meaning-making in which widows and widowers make sense of the changed nature of their relationship with their deceased spouse. We analyzed the experiences of meaning in life among older widows and widowers (aged 65+) using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; see Smith et al. in Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research, Sage, 2009), with the following question: How do widows and widowers search for meaning through continuing and/or transforming their bond to their deceased spouse? The results demonstrate that some of the widowed persons sought meaning through rituals or various means of after-death communication with their deceased spouses. Other participants transformed the bond, for example, through clearing out their deceased spouse’s belongings or a process of reconciliation. Many continued and transformed the bond simultaneously, which shows that negotiation of the relationship after the death of a spouse is an ongoing process in which both continuity and change are present. The experience of a violation of meaning in life affected the participants’ capacity to continue their bond with their deceased spouse.
Highlights
IntroductionThe death of a spouse is one explanation for decreasing purpose in life in old age (Read & Suutama, 2008) as widowhood decreases one’s experience of quality of life (Vaarama et al, 2010)
The aim of the paper is to answer the following question: How do widows and widowers search for meaning through continuing and/or transforming their bond to their deceased spouse?
Three main themes of search for meaning in life after the loss of a spouse in late life arose from the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) analysis: threat to meaning, after-death communication (ADC), and rituals of remembrance
Summary
The death of a spouse is one explanation for decreasing purpose in life in old age (Read & Suutama, 2008) as widowhood decreases one’s experience of quality of life (Vaarama et al, 2010). The experience of meaning in life has various definitions, many of which include the following three aspects: coherence, significance, and purpose (Martela & Steger, 2016; Park, 2010; Schnell, 2009). Pastoral Psychology (e.g., Reker & Chamberlain, 2000; Schnell, 2009) These studies are united in the view that the experience of meaning in late life is related to struggle, crises, and the need to negotiate life events in order to find coherence. If life is appraised as unpredictable and coherence of life cannot be restored, the experience of mistrust expands and loss of meaning increases (Stillman & Baumeister, 2009)
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