Diversity in the Experience of Late-Life Widowhood

Abstract Widowhood is one of the most common relationship losses of older adults. Death of a marital partner represents both personal and interpersonal loss, requiring bereaved spouses to cope with resultant changes in everyday life and in their social relationships. We target this review of the literature not only to those wfw work in the field of aging but also to those in many other fields whose professional efforts and personal lives are likely to connect, at least tangentially, with the experiences of older people. We provide an overview of the diversity of responses to the widowhood loss with an emphasis on how characteristics of bereaved persons, their marital relationships, and their social support networks affect adjustment to widowhood.