Social support, life events, and stress as modifiers of adjustment to bereavement by older adults.

Abstract

As part of a larger panel study interviews were obtained from 3 samples of older adults: 45 persons who had recently lost a spouse, 40 who had lost a parent or child, and 45 who were not bereaved. Assessments were conducted before and after the deaths. In the widowed sample, health remained quite stable, but depression increased sharply, then remained elevated. Changes were minimal in the sample who had lost a parent or child and in the nonbereaved sample. Multiple regression procedures were used to identify factors that contribute to depression and health 9 months after the spouse's death. Postbereavement depression was associated with higher prebereavement depression, higher financial pressures, higher global stress, fewer new interests, and lower social support. Health was a function of prebereavement health, new interests, financial pressures, and global stress. In general, life events and resources had stronger effects in the widowed sample than in the comparison samples.

Is bereavement-related depression different than non-bereavement-related depression?

“…All three studies assessing health and/or physical limitations found significant relationships between poor health and onset of BRD (Clayton, 1975;McHorney & Mor, 1988;. Five of six studies measuring social support found an inverse relationship between social supports and BRD (Clayton, 1975;Dimond et al 1987 ;Norris & Murrell, 1990;Nuss & Zubenko, 1992).…”

“…None of these studies compared BRD to SMD. One of the studies compared bereaved to matched non-bereaved individuals (Norris & Murrell, 1990), three compared bereaved persons with BRD to those without depression (Clayton, 1975;McHorney & Mor, 1988;Zisook & Shuchter, 1991 b) and three examined bereaved populations without comparison groups (Dimond et al 1987 ;Nuss & Zubenko, 1992). All three studies assessing health and/or physical limitations found significant relationships between poor health and onset of BRD (Clayton, 1975;McHorney & Mor, 1988;.…”

“…These studies report high rates of depressive syndromes extending well beyond the first several months of bereavement. Overall, compared to non-bereaved controls, elevated rates of depression may last as long as 6 months (Bruce et al 1990;Thompson et al 1991), 9 months (Norris & Murrell, 1990), 18 months (Brent et al 1994), 2 years (Harlow et al 1991 b;Stroebe & Stroebe, 1991 ;Hays et al 1994 a, b;Carnelley et al 1999;Turvey et al 1999), 30 months , or even as long as 3 or more years (Bodnar & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1994;Mendes De Leon et al 1994 ;Lichtenstein et al 1996;Wilcox et al 2003). Thus, depressive symptoms whose onset occurs within the post-bereavement window of time the DSM uses to exclude the diagnosis of MDE appears to be as chronic and/or recurrent as SMD.…”

Anticipatory grief in the context of dementia caregiving.

“…Again, this finding is similar to those of Meuser (2002, 2005) who found a similar relationship between AG and social support. This result is also consistent with the bereavement literature which has reliably demonstrated that support from family and friends is one of the strongest predictors of bereavement outcomes including depression and grief symptomatology (Sanders, 1993;Stroebe, Stroebe, Abakoumkin, & Schut, 1996;Norris & Murrell, 1990). …”

Resilience in late-life bereavement : disentangling the relationship between resilience and cumulative lifetime loss.

“…Just as the aging process is often associated with the experience of desirable life events (Norris & Murrell, 1990) such as grandparenthood and retirement, it is also associated with the experience of less desirable life events, such as the loss of a loved one (Hansson, Hayslip & Stroebe, 2007). Death rate statistics show that older adults are not only experiencing the greatest number of deaths within their age group compared to their younger counterparts, but also have the opportunity to experience the widest variety of bereavements in terms of type of relationship to the deceased (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).…”