Married and Spouseless Men and Women in Planned Retirement Communities: Support Network Differentials

Longino, Charles F.; Lipman, Aaron

doi:10.2307/351427

Cited by 42 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In our study, women and older participants reported higher levels of received instrumental support, which is in line with previous studies (Edelbrock et al 2001;Longino and Lipman 1981). Despite the high number of chronic conditions in the sample, and considering the sample's age, participants still experienced high levels of autonomy, which were quite stable over the period of investigation (3 months).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Maintaining autonomy despite multimorbidity: self-efficacy and the two faces of social support

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Multimorbidity-the co-occurrence of multiple illnesses-is a frequent condition in older adults and poses serious threats to autonomy. In order to identify resources for autonomy despite multimorbidity, our longitudinal study tested main and interaction effects of personal and social resources (self-efficacy and social support) on maintaining autonomy. Three hundred and nine individuals (aged 65-85 years) with multiple illnesses completed measures of self-efficacy beliefs, received instrumental social support and perceptions of autonomy. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Cross-sectionally, individuals with lower perceptions of autonomy received more support from their networks. Longitudinally, the relation of received support with autonomy was moderated by self-efficacy: Simple slopes analyses showed that social support compensated for lower levels of self-efficacy, whereas in individuals with higher self-efficacy the resources interfered. Receiving social support bolstered autonomy in lower self-efficacious individuals, but in highly self-efficacious individuals support threatened autonomy. This has implications for both theory and practice, as it suggests differential effects of social resources depending on personal resources.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Maintaining autonomy despite multimorbidity: self-efficacy and the two faces of social support

et al. 2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…With illness and the need for social supports, the spouse is the one who provides the most help (Johnson, 1983;Palmore, 1976;Shanas, 1979), and the presence of a spouse is associated with higher morale (Larson, 1978;Longino and Lipman, 1981).In contrast to the ample literature on retirement's impact on marriage, role changes occurring with illness have received far less attention, even though illness has been found to have far more impact than retirement on marital satisfaction (Atchley and Miller, 1982; Keating and Cole, 1980). We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Illness on Late-Life Marriages

Johnson¹

1985

Journal of Marriage and the Family

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, This paper reports on 76 late-life marriages in which either a husband or a wife is recuperating from a hospital stay. High satisfaction was found in most of the marriages, and spouses generally provided a high level of support. Socioeconomic status, the gender of the caregiver, and the level of disability of one spouse had minimal impact on the dimensions of marital quality or the social support potentials in the dyad. However, compared with the widows also studied, the married were more socially isolated and the couples tended to satisfy each other's needs with little help from others. The analysis uses qualitative data on marital satisfaction which suggest that the criteria for success differs from those in earlier stages of the family cycle.The benefits of being married in later life are considerable. Most likely because of the instrumental and emotional resources found in marriage, the divorce rate is low in old age (Treas and Van Hilst, 1976). Married people generally have better health and suffer from less disability than the widowed or permanently single (Verbrugge, 1979). Being married is the single most important factor in preventing institutionalization of the elderly (Health Care Financing Administration 1981). With illness and the need for social supports, the spouse is the one who provides the most help (Johnson, 1983;Palmore, 1976;Shanas, 1979), and the presence of a spouse is associated with higher morale (Larson, 1978;Longino and Lipman, 1981).In contrast to the ample literature on retirement's impact on marriage, role changes occurring with illness have received far less attention, even though illness has been found to have far more impact than retirement on marital satisfaction (Atchley and Miller, 1982; Keating and Cole, 1980). Since 86% of all those over age 65 suffer from at least one chronic condition (Kovar, 1977), large numbers of marriages are affected by illnessrelated changes in the impaired spouse's disposition and needs. Unfortunately, most research on one spouse's adaptation to the other's illness comes from middle-aged respondents, and these reports are mixed (Croog and Fitzgerald, 1978;Klein et al., 1967). More clinically oriented research on older couples has found adaptive problems. Busse (1976) reports that older wives caring for disabled husbands are prone to hypochrondriasis. These wives also had few sources of compensation for the emotional satisfaction they had previously received from their spouses. Moreover, demonstration projects on elderly wives caring for impaired husbands have found a high level of stress which they traced to the "burdens of care" persisting over a long period' (Cros...

show abstract

“…As Lynch (1977) emphasized, according to present cultural norms it is much less acceptable for men than for women to admit feelings of loneliness and a need for companionship. Men may therefore actually accept less support than they need (Longino and Lipman 1981). Second, in many marriages, the social relations are maintained by the wives (Wortman et al 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in depression after widowhood. Do men suffer more?

Grootheest

Beekman

Groenou

et al. 1999

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: This study focuses on sex dierences in depression of the widowed. Previous research showed dierent results in sex dierences and in depression after bereavement. We assessed the eects of widowhood on depressive symptoms for men and women and examined whether environmental strain like social support, ®nances and housekeeping concerns explain these eects. Methods: Data were used from a large communitybased study of older people in three regions of the Netherlands. Our study sample consists of 2626 widowed and married subjects in the age group of 55-85 years. Depression was measured using the CES-D scale; the various strains were obtained by structured interviews. Multiple linear regression, performed for men and women separately, were used. Results: The results show that widowhood is associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and that this association is stronger for men than for women. The eect of widowhood is mediated by dierent types of environmental strain for men and women. However, a strong direct main eect of widowhood on depression remains. The dierence in depression rates between men and women is most evident among those widowed for a longer period of time. Conclusions: It appears that, over time, women adapt to widowhood more successfully than men. From a clinical point of view this is important, as it suggests that men who remain alone after losing their partner are at a higher risk of developing symptoms of chronic depression.

show abstract

Married and Spouseless Men and Women in Planned Retirement Communities: Support Network Differentials

Cited by 42 publications

References 16 publications

Maintaining autonomy despite multimorbidity: self-efficacy and the two faces of social support

Maintaining autonomy despite multimorbidity: self-efficacy and the two faces of social support

The Impact of Illness on Late-Life Marriages

Sex differences in depression after widowhood. Do men suffer more?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About