ABSTRACT
This chapter is a result of research focused upon the roles and life styles of a very specific group of people: American urban widows fifty years of age or older. In the case of widows, such a self-initiating woman, though experiencing strong life disorganization at her husband's death, is nonetheless able to withdraw from, modify, or enter social relations of her own re-examination of life styles and goals. The widow must learn to live alone for the first time of her life. Since this process is complicated by grief and all of its manifestations, psychologists and the majority of widows advise companionship during the year following the husband's death. The presence of socially isolated widows in the Chicago area sample bears examination, in view of the social disengagement theory that posits a voluntary withdrawal of people and society from each other as age increases. The community within which the widow lives can contribute to both her short-range and long-range adjustment.
