Institute of Social Sciences and NCCR LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Institute of Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.
Gerontology. 2018;64(4):344-360. doi: 10.1159/000485916. Epub 2017 Dec 19.
Losing one's spouse is one of the most stressful life events in old age, yet research on positive consequences of overcoming critical life events describes experiences of personal growth for survivors.
Because prior studies conceptualized personal growth as a stable accomplishment of an individual, our study challenges this assumption by examining trajectories of personal growth and its links to two aspects of social support. We assume that personal growth is boosted by heightened levels of loss-related social support seeking during early years of widowhood. However, toward the later stages in the bereavement process, we expect personal growth to be fostered by perceived social embeddedness.
Data stem from a survey on relationships in later life conducted in 2012, 2014, and 2016 in Switzerland. The final analytical sample consisted of 508 individuals aged 50+ years, who were on average 73 years old and widowed for about 3 years at baseline. Longitudinal explorative factor analyses yielded a 3-factorial solution for personal growth. Random-effects group-specific growth curves were used to examine the trajectories of personal growth and its subdimensions, by different levels of loss-related social support seeking and embeddedness in a supportive network, over the first 8 years of widowhood. Our analyses included time-invariant and time-varying covariates.
On average, our findings point to a stable trajectory of personal growth after having become widowed in later life. Group-specific analyses, however, showed different courses in the trajectories for specific subdimensions of personal growth - particularly for spiritual change and appreciation of life. Average marginal effects also yielded group differences by loss-related support seeking in the level of personal growth over time, which highlight the importance of social support seeking, rather than social embeddedness, at all stages of the bereavement process.
Findings underline the importance of a longitudinal and linked-lives perspective on personal growth and point to different pathways regarding its various subdimensions. Future research should further examine the validity of personal growth scales for other populations and consider the possibility to experience personal growth already during the anticipation of a traumatic event (e.g., in the case of long-term caretaking).
丧偶是老年人生活中最具压力的事件之一，但研究克服关键生活事件的积极后果描述了幸存者个人成长的经历。
由于先前的研究将个人成长概念化为个体的稳定成就，我们的研究通过考察个人成长的轨迹及其与社会支持的两个方面的联系来挑战这一假设。我们假设，在丧偶的早期，与丧失相关的社会支持寻求的水平升高会促进个人成长。然而，在丧亲过程的后期阶段，我们期望个人成长会受到感知到的社会融入的促进。
数据来自 2012 年、2014 年和 2016 年在瑞士进行的关于晚年关系的调查。最终的分析样本包括 508 名年龄在 50 岁以上的个体，他们的平均年龄为 73 岁，在基线时丧偶约 3 年。纵向探索性因素分析为个人成长产生了一个 3 因素解决方案。使用随机效应特定组的增长曲线，根据与丧失相关的社会支持寻求和支持网络的嵌入程度的不同水平，在丧偶后的头 8 年里，考察个人成长及其子维度的轨迹。我们的分析包括时间不变和时变协变量。
平均而言，我们的研究结果表明，在晚年丧偶后，个人成长会呈现出稳定的轨迹。然而，特定组的分析显示，个人成长的特定子维度的轨迹存在不同的路径——特别是在精神变化和对生活的欣赏方面。平均边际效应也产生了随时间推移的与丧失相关的支持寻求在个人成长水平上的组间差异，这突出了在丧亲过程的所有阶段寻求社会支持的重要性，而不是社会嵌入。
研究结果强调了从纵向和关联生命的角度看待个人成长的重要性，并指出了其不同子维度的不同途径。未来的研究应该进一步检验个人成长量表对其他人群的有效性，并考虑在预期创伤性事件（例如，在长期护理的情况下）时体验个人成长的可能性。
