Wearing the Garment of Widowhood: Variations in Time Since Spousal Loss Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

We examine how the passage of time since spousal loss varies by social and demographic characteristics, using data from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Study of Aging. In multivariate analyses, African American race, female sex, lower income, and higher risk of social isolation had significant and independent associations with variation in time since spousal loss. African American women were at highest risk for long-term widowhood. Accurate characterizations of widowhood among community-dwelling older adults must consider variation in the length of time individuals are living as widowed persons and socioeconomic concomitants of long-term widowhood.

Keywords:

• widow
• bereavement
• older women
• Black women
• community-dwelling
• social isolation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dr. Williams is supported by the Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development, Award Number IIR–03–026 and PPO 09–315–1. Dr. Sawyer and Dr. Allman are supported by Award Number Award Number R01 AG16062, “Mobility Among Older African Americans and Whites—The UAB Study of Aging,” P30AG031054, the Deep South Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, from the National Institute on Aging. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute on Aging, or the National Institutes of Health.