Widowhood: The first anniversary spousal bereavement-related stress, coping, and well-being in older women
View File(s)
- Author(s)
- Details
-
Mary Elizabeth Minton, PhD, RN, CNS, CHPN
Visitor Statistics
Visits vs Downloads
Visitors - World Map
Top Visiting Countries
Country | Visits |
---|
Top Visiting Cities
City | Visits |
---|
Visits (last 6 months)
Downloads (last 6 months)
Popular Works for Minton, Mary Elizabeth by View
Title | Page Views |
---|
Popular Works for Minton, Mary Elizabeth by Download
Title | Downloads |
---|
View Citations
Citations
By 2020 approximately one million individuals will experience spousal bereavement annually, primarily older women. However, little is known about the survivor's well-being around the first year death anniversary. This study examined spousal bereavement-related stress, coping, and well-being in widows 65 years and older at months 11, 12, and 13 following the death of the spouse based on Lazarus and Folkman's transactional approach and Schaefer and Moos' model of life crises and transitions. Using a prospective, longitudinal, correlational design, data were collected from 47 widows. Concepts and related variables measured were: personal resource (optimism); environmental resource (social network); bereavement-related physiological (salivary cortisol) and psychological (intrusion-avoidance) stress; coping (spiritual, social support); and well-being (spiritual, psychosocial, and physical). The average participant was 74 years old (range 65-91), Caucasian (100%), and married an average of 46 years (range 3-64 years). The death of the spouse represented the end of a first marriage (76.6%). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and repeated measures ANOVA with planned comparisons. Results indicated that, at all three time periods, optimism was: (a) inversely correlated with intrusion-avoidance (r = -.52 to -.66, p < .01), and (b) positively correlated with well-being (physical: r = .36 to .46, p < .05; psychosocial: r = .58 to .72, p < .01; spiritual: r = .50 to.69, p < .01). Moreover, at all three time periods, social network was positively correlated with social support coping (r = .46 to .56, p < .01) and spiritual coping was positively correlated with spiritual well-being (r = .47 to .60, p < .01). Physiological stress as measured by salivary cortisol was (a) inversely correlated with optimism at months 12 and 13 (month 12 am cortisol: r = -.30, p < .05; month 13 pm cortisol: r = -.35, p < .05; AUC12: r = -.52 and -.64, p < .01), and (b) inversely correlated with social network at month 13 (pm cortisol: r = -.38, p < .01; AUC12: r = -.45, p < .01). As expected, psychological stress as measured by the Impact of Event Scale (intrusion-avoidance) was higher at month 12 when compared to month 13 (t [43] = 2.54, p = .015) but not when compared to month 11 (t [43] = 1.49, p = .144). Results will aid in developing interventions to strengthen survivor's coping strategies during the first anniversary.
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3244540; ProQuest document ID: 304963671. The author still retains copyright.
This item has not gone through this repository's peer-review process, but has been accepted by the indicated university or college in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the specified degree.
Type | Dissertation |
Acquisition | Proxy-submission |
Review Type | None: Degree-based Submission |
Format | Text-based Document |
Evidence Level | Cross-Sectional |
Research Approach | Pilot/Exploratory Study |
Keywords | Widows; Well-being; Stress and Coping |
Grantor | University of Nebraska Medical Center |
Advisor | Barron, Cecilia R. |
Level | PhD |
Year | 2006 |
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subjects.
-
Exploring the related factors of spiritual well-being in the parents of children with critical illness
Huang, Li-Chi; Chen, Wei ChiaUnderstanding the related factors of spiritual well-being in the parents of children with critical illness would brought better care in clinical practice. The results suggest that the spiritual well- being related educational ... -
Will culture influence coping strategies, psychological well-being, and suicidal ideation?: A comparison between USA and Taiwanese college students
Yeh, Pi-Ming; Liou, Jenn-Chang (2012-9-12)Purpose: Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students in the U.S. and is preventable. Approximately 1100 college students die by suicide each year in USA. In Taiwan, youth suicide rate were 4.4 per ... -
The influence of coping strategies and using alcohol on elders' psychological well-being and suicidal ideation
Yeh, Pi-MingThis study purpose was to examine the influences of coping strategies and using alcohol on elders' psychological well-being and suicidal ideation. Coping strategies and using alcohol with negative emotion had significant ... -
The comparisons of coping strategies and psychological well-being between Taiwanese and Australian college students
Yeh, Pi-Ming; Moxham, Lorna; Patterson, Christopher; Antoniou, Carolyn (2018-06-08)The western and eastern cultures influence college students' coping strategies, life satisfaction and self-actualization, psychological well-being, and depression. Australian college students had higher scores of using ... -
Stress, coping and well-being in Lebanese entering college students
Doumit, Rita (2013-10-22)Session presented on: Tuesday, July 23, 2013: Purpose: A theoretical framework for adolescent coping has been developed but not tested in contexts of high uncertainty. This study aimed to test the applicability of the ...