Perceptions of the Widow's Bereavement Process by Her Adult Child

Abstract

Little empirical attention has been simultaneously

given to both the widow and her adult child. The evidence that does

exist suggests that mother-adult child bereavement asynchrony is

common. Participants were 59 widowed mother-adult child pairs.

Mothers averaged 60 years of age and had been widowed 3.5 years.

Using a person-perception approach 11 variables were expected to

influence the adult child's accuracy in predicting their widowed

mother's bereavement responses. None of the variables significantly

predicted this accuracy on any of 15 grief scales. Other findings

included: higher grief scores by mothers compared to their adult

children and reports by mothers that they should share, and actually

did share, an average of 60% of their feelings about their life with

their adult child. Finally, when adult children were asked to estimate

the accuracy of their predictions, thcy significantly overestimated

their actual "hit" rate of 67%. Results are discussed in terms of

person perception accuracy and bereavement adjustment.