ABSTRACT
Widowhood is considered the most distressing and life-altering transition experienced by older adults (Holmes and Rahe, 1967). Yet the meaning and personal consequences of spousal loss are contingent on the larger social and historical context. In the United States, where the modern nuclear family is socially and economically autonomous, spouses may have few alternative sources of social, emotional, or instrumental support (Lopata, 1973; Volkart and Michael, 1957). When one’s spouse dies, the survivor must adjust psychologically to the loss of their closest confidante, and must manage the daily decisions and responsibilities that were once shared by both spouses (Carey, 1979-1980; Umberson et al., 1992). The adjustments required by widowed spouses may be particularly difficult in societies which maintain a rigid gender-based allocation of social roles; men and women may have little experience in fulfilling the instrumental and expressive roles previously performed by their spouses.
