Losing a spouse: What hurts and what helps ANN ARBOR—Money doesn’t protect older men and women from the psychological impact of the death of a spouse, according to University of Michigan research presented in Boston at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. But living within an hour’s drive of an adult child is linked with higher levels of well-being and lower levels of depression among widowed men and women, the U-M researchers were scheduled to report Saturday (Nov. 23) in a symposium on late-life widowhood in the United States. The findings were based on analyses of data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples study, a rare prospective survey of a random community-based sample of 1,532 married men and women age 65 and older conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world’s largest academic survey and research institution. "While only about 6 percent of widowed persons had serious financial problems since their spouse died, 63 percent reported less income and 34 percent said their financial strain increased significantly after they were widowed," said Rebecca Utz, a sociologist at ISR. "The negative economic consequences are even more pronounced for women than they are for men, and the declines are lasting, not a temporary drop associated with funeral expenses or estate planning." But according to Utz, having greater economic resources does not protect surviving spouses from experiencing psychological distress. "Many widowed persons face an increased risk of economic hardship following the death of their spouse," she said. "While a significant loss of resources after widowhood can contribute to increased psychological distress, I found that having greater economic resources before the loss does not cushion the psychological impact of widowhood." For the analysis, supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Nancy Pritzker Research Network, Utz compared the economic resources, sense of financial strain and psychological well-being of 211 widowed persons in the study and 86 matched controls who were interviewed six months and 18 months after their initial interviews. No matter how high their incomes, surviving spouses who depended heavily on their late husbands or wives to pay the bills and handle financial planning and legal matters are particularly vulnerable to grief and depression following their loss, Utz found. "The results presented here suggest that one effective way to help bereaved persons is to offer training in skills such as paying bills and balancing checkbooks that they may have depended on their deceased spouse to perform," Utz said. "While money doesn’t protect against grief, changes in economic resources and the resulting sense of strain the surviving spouse experiences do heighten vulnerability to psychological distress." In the same symposium, U-M researcher Jung-Hwa Ha presented findings on the link between geographic proximity to an adult child and the psychological well-being of widowed parents, also using data from the U-M Changing Lives of Older Couples study. Ha found that compared to widowed parents who live far from their children, parents who live within a one-hour drive show significantly less depression and anxiety after bereavement. But living with an adult child after the spouse’s death does not have a significant effect on the surviving parent’s sense of well-being. "Many parents seem to benefit from living close to their children," she said. "But they also want to maintain their own physical and psychological space, and their autonomy." In other analyses of data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples study, Utz found that 87 percent of widowed people said they tried to keep busy or get involved in some activity as a way to cope with feelings of grief or loneliness. Rather than being "fifth wheels" after losing a spouse, she found that widowed men and women have higher levels of informal social participation than their non-widowed peers, getting together with friends, neighbors or relatives and talking on the phone more often than they did when their spouses were alive. "A lot of what we think we know about widowhood may not really be the case," Utz said. Established in 1948, the Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world’s oldest survey research organizations, and a world leader in the development and application of social science methodology. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, the National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa. Visit the ISR Web site at www.isr.umich.edu for more information. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world’s largest computerized social science data archive.

Related Links:
Institute for Social Research: www.isr.umich.edu
Changing Lives of Older Couples Study: www.cloc.isr.umich.edu
U-M research on widowhood dispels some common myths >> (March 2001 news release) E-mail: Swanbrow@umich.edu