This prospective research will examine the physical and mental health and social adjustment patterns of 176 white widows ages 25 to 62 and 176 divorcees matched by median income of census tract and age to the widowed. The widows and divorcees will be interviewed twice, 2 and 14 months after the death of the spouse or after filing for divorce. The study site is Cuyahoga County, Ohio (metropolitan Cleveland). The sample of widows, stratified by age, will be drawn from their spouses' death certificates; the sample of divorcees will be drawn from the county divorce records. From age 25 onward, no less than 9% up to 50% of American women are either divorced or widowed. Being widowed or divorced is associated with substantially higher mortality and morbidity rates than being married or single with the divorced often having the highest rates. This three year study is one of the first directly to examine the proposition that adjustment to widowhood and divorce is in many ways a similar process involving loss. It is hypothesized that it is the loss of the partner, social status, and income which helps to account for the increased health risk each group experiences. When widows and divorcees differ in their adjustment patterns, it is expected that divorcees will have the more difficult time. This is due to the greater sense of stigma, being treated differently by others because of their voluntary marital status change; the greater feeling of ambivalence the divorced have about their ex-spouses; and the lower levels of social support they receive compared to the widowed. It is also expected that adjustment patterns will interact with age so that young widows and older divorcees will, within each marital status group, have the more difficult time adjusting. Multivariate analysis of variance and covariance will be used to analyze the data. This study will provide a clearer foundation for developing programs to address the health risks associated with the end of marriage at different stages of the life course. To put these data in context, health status and demographic comparisons of the widows and divorcees will be made to two control groups of the married recently collected in the Cleveland area. Since losses are a common experience of adult life, a detailed description of elements involved in two major types of losses with comparisons to the married will provide a clearer empirical foundation for a better model of adjustment to loss in adult life.
| Kitson, G C (2000) Adjustment to violent and natural deaths in later and earlier life for black and white widows. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 55:S341-51 |
