The Psychological Processes of Elderly Widows

Abstract

　　The purpose of this study is to investigate the marital relationship before bereavement and the psychological processes after spousal bereavement to detect a clinical insight that promotes the bereaved's recovery. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 19 elderly women who had experienced spousal bereavement within the last 5 years. The marital relationship was investigated through an evaluation of their husbands, intimacy, and home life. The psychological processes after bereavement were constructed from the following five steps based on Ross's study: shock, denial, anger, depression, and acceptance.

　　The findings were as follows: The subject's marital relationships before bereavement were classified into four groups. (1) The type of intimacy in which subjects tended to experience all steps of the psychological process, which included attachment and yearning for their husbands. (2) The type of affirmation in which subjects tended to reach the step of acceptance directly. It showed that they hadn't been affected by their husband's death. (3) The type of estrangement in which subjects tended to experience the step of anger and depression. (4) The type of rejection in which subjects tended to reach the step of acceptance only through anger. Anger, in regard to estrangement and rejection was defined differently in this study than it was in Ross's study.

　　These results show that the psychological processes after bereavement are influenced by the marital relationship before bereavement.