Department of Psychology, Arizona State University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2017 Jun;112(6):926-947. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000095. Epub 2016 Jul 11.
Spousal loss can be one of the most devastating events to occur across one's life, resulting in difficulties across different spheres of adjustment; yet, past research on resilience to bereavement has primarily focused on single adjustment indicators. We applied growth mixture modeling to data from 421 participants from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia Study who experienced spousal loss during the course of the study to examine (a) the extent to which individuals appear to be resilient across 3 indicators of subjective well-being-life satisfaction, negative affect, and positive affect, and 2 indicators of health-perceptions of general health and physical functioning-and (b) factors that might promote resilience. Approximately 66%, 19% and 26% individuals showed resilient trajectories, respectively, for life satisfaction, negative affect, and positive affect, whereas 37% and 28% showed resilience, respectively, for perceptions of general health and physical functioning. When we considered all 5 indicators simultaneously, only 8% showed "multidimensional" resilience, whereas 20% showed a non-resilient trajectory across all 5 indicators. The strongest predictors of resilient trajectories were continued engagement in everyday life activities and in social relationships, followed by anticipation that people would comfort them in times of distress. Overall, our findings demonstrate that resilience in the face of spousal bereavement is less common than previously thought. More importantly, they underscore the critical importance of multidimensional approaches while operationalizing doing well in the context of serious life adversities. (PsycINFO Database Record
丧偶可能是一个人一生中最具毁灭性的事件之一，导致在不同的适应领域都面临困难；然而，过去关于丧亲之痛的适应力的研究主要集中在单一的适应指标上。我们应用增长混合模型，对在研究过程中经历配偶丧失的 421 名澳大利亚家庭收入和劳动力动态研究参与者的数据进行了分析，以检验：（a）个体在 3 项主观幸福感指标（生活满意度、负性情感和正性情感）和 2 项健康指标（一般健康感和身体功能）上表现出适应力的程度；（b）促进适应力的因素。大约 66%、19%和 26%的个体在生活满意度、负性情感和正性情感方面表现出适应轨迹，而 37%和 28%的个体在一般健康感和身体功能方面表现出适应力。当我们同时考虑所有 5 个指标时，只有 8%的个体表现出“多维”适应力，而 20%的个体在所有 5 个指标上都表现出非适应力轨迹。适应轨迹的最强预测因素是继续参与日常生活活动和社会关系，其次是预期人们在困难时期会安慰他们。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，面对配偶丧失的适应力比以前认为的要少。更重要的是，它们强调了在严重生活逆境中表现良好的情况下，采用多维方法的重要性。
