1. Transitions in Intimate Relationships-Widowhood Gero 408

2. Widowhood Today’s older person is likely to experience widowhood (page 106), more so for women and therefore this is often considered a women’s issue. Gender responses often reflect the social structure of gender relationships reproduced in traditional marriage. Here we can see bereavement, grieving and mourning, some psychological disorganization, shock and pain.

3. Widowhood See middle of page 106 for reactions of extreme grief and caregiver responses and compare to the stages in the dying trajectory and the work of Kubler-Ross. Look at anticipatory responses. The costs of widowhood in older age are reduced opportunity for partnership, or new social networks and has age related consequences. Self esteem can be either enhanced or lowered.See pages 110-111

4. Widowhood Marital quality can influence widowhood, those who had warm and interdependent relationships have more problems than those who had strain and conflict in the marriage. Illness and cognitive decline can affect the transition. Decreased sexual relations, different routines and sleeping arrangements and the relief at the end of caregiving. Long term consequences include: elevated risk of morbidity, fiscal situation, pension changes, residential mobility.

5. Widowhood Moving peaks during the first year of widowhood. Alterations in living arrangements and often a move into a care arrangement. Read page 113. Quality and frequency of interactions with children increase with widowhood. Instrumental and financial support. Increased contact with sibs which provides socio-emotional support. Men spend a shorter time in widowhood, but they are often more depressed if the state continues

6. Widowhood Three types of women in widowhood have been defined-those who experience lonliness and despair, those who get on with their lives and those who experience widowhood as a transition- p 116 Read pages 116-118 Death of same sex partner. Many of the consequences of widowhood reflect socially constructed relations of gender and sexual orientation in the domains of work and family.