The impact of religious orientation in conjugal bereavement among older adults

Despite the importance of religious faith to many older adults and the predictability of spousal death as an extremely distressful life experience, only a few studies have seriously focused on the relationship between religious commitment and adaptation to widowhood. The present study addressed this issue by surveying 159 elderly widowed involved in southern Californian support groups. Grief, depression, and intrinsic-extrinsic religiousness were assessed and then analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression procedures. Higher extrinsicness was found with higher levels of distress across sex, suggesting that an extrinsic orientation may set the stage for a poorer adjustment. Widowers tending to be more indiscriminately proreligious also showed higher distress levels. Greater distress was associated with poorer health after spousal death for widows and before spousal death for widowers.