Stefanie Spahni

Psychological adaptation to spousal bereavement in old age: The role of trait resilience, marital history, and context of death

ABSTRACT This research examined the effect of marital status and gender on various indicators of psychological adaptation, namely depressive symptoms, loneliness, and life satisfaction. It further explores the role of trait resilience, marital history, and context of death for predicting these outcomes in bereaved individuals. Four hundred eighty widowed individuals aged between 60 and 89 were compared with 759 married peers. Main effects were found for marital status and gender for all indicators. The regression analyses illustrate the multifaceted structure of psychological adaptation. Trait resilience is a key factor in adapting to spousal bereavement, whereas marital history and the context are secondary.

How Marital Status Is Related to Subjective Well-Being and Dispositional Hope

Having an intimate partner is relevant for individual identity, daily routine, and represents an important source of support, and is thus crucial for well-being. In turn, marital break-up and spousal bereavement are considered as critical life events with a high potential for vulnerabilization. In this chapter we examine how marital status impacts well-being and hope. Using original data from the Swiss Hope-Barometer 2015, we compare married, separated/divorced and widowed individuals regarding various indicators of subjective well-being and show how far they are predicted by dispositional hope, optimism, and social relations. Our results confirm lower life satisfaction in both loss-groups. Separated/divorced individuals further report higher loneliness and depression rates than the married ones. Dispositional hope, optimism and social relations are strong predictors of subjective well-being. They are assumed to be crucial to enable adaptation and sustain health as well as well-being when facing the loss of an intimate relationship.

The Older, the Better? The Role of Hope for the Regulation of Subjective Well-Being Over Life-Span

Despite the increase of theoretical and empirical work on subjective well-being, research addressing the relation between hope and various dimensions of well-being from a life-span approach is still scarce. Based on original data of the Hope-Barometer 2015, this contribution aims at closing some research gaps by focussing on the question on how hope, well-being and age are related, and on how dispositional hope can predict life satisfaction, happiness and meaning in life and explain their variance. Results show a significant age-related increase for all well-being and dispositional hope parameters. Our data confirm furthermore the dominant role of hope for predicting meaning in life and life satisfaction over all age groups. Nonetheless, optimism also has a non-negligible impact on well-being outcomes, essentially for happiness and to a lesser extent for life satisfaction. These insights are not only scientific relevant, but entail important practical implications for designing interventions and psychological education.

Psychological adaptation to spousal loss in old age: The role of personality

Spousal loss is an inevitable critical life event for most individuals in old age, mostly associated with a negative impact on various well-being measures, ie. lower life satisfaction, higher rates of loneliness and depressive symptoms compared to married peers. While the negative effects on well-being are well documented in literature, the modifying factors accounting for the large variability in adaptation to loss are discussed controversially. The potential relevance of personality in the adaptation process has rarely been examined and findings regarding the role of time since loss are contradictory. Based on a vulnerability-stress-model this contribution aims a) to compare psychological well-being of bereaved individuals with married counterparts and b) to investigate the protective effects of different personality traits (Big Five, resilience), and the role of time since loss for adaptation in terms of life satisfaction, loneliness and depression. Data from a questionnaire study about the loss of a spouse in middle and old age in the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland are reported. The study is part of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES (Swiss National Science Foundation). The sample consists of 351 widowed persons (39% men, widowed since 0 - 5 years), and 605 married controls (50% men), aged 60 - 89 years. Group comparisons reveal the detrimental effect of spousal bereavement on all indicators of psychological adaptation. Results from hierarchical regression analyses show furthermore, that the effect of spousal loss on all psychological outcomes is moderated by personality traits. Separate analyses with the group of bereaved individuals suggest, that the protective effect of personality varies by the time passed since loss. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the variability in psychological adaptation to spousal loss in old age and give hints for counselling practice.