Differences in Patterns of Adaptation in Conjugal Bereavement: Their Sources and Potential Significance

Several different patterns of adaptation over the first eighteen months of bereavement represented by levels of subjective stress (Impact of Event Scale) and depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) were identified in a sample of 131 widowed men and women. Adaptation patterns identified for both subjective stress and depression included: low-stable distress, high-stable distress, ascending distress, and descending distress. Discriminant function analyses yielded a single significant function which discriminated between the different courses of adaptation for both subjective stress and depression. Inspection of the variables correlated with this function—anticipatory grief, concurrent stressors, social support, and spiritual support—suggested that it represented the person's ability to cope with the stress of bereavement. Implications for community interventions, theory development, and future research were discussed.