Women's adjustment to widowhood: does social support matter?

Abstract

Widowhood is a stressful event for women, often coinciding with health, financial, and relationship losses. Researchers have considered many aspects of women's adjustment to widowhood, typically including social support in analyses. This study analyzed relationships between social support and adjustment from 19 previous widowhood studies. Contrary to intuition and most researchers' assumptions, the majority of relationships did not show that social support positively impacted adjustment. Analyses examined whether type of support or study methods affected the likelihood of finding a significant relationship between support and adjustment. Chi-square statistics indicated that neither of these factors influenced the effect of social support on women's adjustment to widowhood.