Research Topic - March 2010
Widowhood & Social Occupation
Widowed World is delighted to present a unique piece of research into ‘widowhood’, examining how in the UK every year, this life transition affects a huge number of people, having a massive impact on an individual’s life. Social Occupation, i.e. any activity performed with other people, is one of the major areas affected.
This research was undertaken by Caroline Gunstone, an Msc. student at the University of Brighton, studying ‘Health Through Occupation’ and the copyright remains with her. Caroline is now qualified as an Occupational Therapist and we wish her well in her career.
Abstract
Widowhood affects a huge number of people in the UK every year and can have a massive impact on an individual’s life. Social Occupations are one of the areas affected; these consist of any activities performed with other people. Research into this area has thus far been largely quantitative and its results have been fairly inconsistent. In this phenomenological study three older widows and one older widower, who belonged to a Breakfast Club for those who had been affected by widowhood, participated in in-depth interviews about their experience of social occupations. The interviews were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and through this analysis six themes emerged from the data. The themes were: Change, Company, Barriers, Benefits, Variety and Reasons for Engaging. The analysis indicated that respondents became involved in a variety of social occupations in order to try and move on with their lives and avoid becoming depressed. They also reported that the social occupations that they were involved in were quite different from when their spouses were alive. The respondents reported that being involved in social occupations had a beneficial effect on their lives and gave them a chance for company. Despite the benefits the respondents also spoke of a variety of barriers to them beginning new social occupations.
The findings suggest that it is important for healthcare professionals to encourage widows and widowers to become involved in social occupations in order for them to maintain their health and wellbeing.
Key Words: Well-being; Activity; Phenomenology
Introduction
Every year thousands of people are widowed in the United Kingdom. In 2001 forty-seven percent of women and seventeen percent of men over the age of sixty-five were widowed (UK Statistics Authority 2008). Widowhood is reported to be one of the most stressful life events a person can face (Patterson and Carpenter 1994) and as such the impact it has on a person’s life needs to be considered. This article will focus on the impact of widowhood on an individual’s social occupations, which are defined as:
Any activities done with others and…characterized by active and voluntary participation and interaction with other individuals in both formal and informal groups.
Stevens-Ratchford and Cebulak (2004 p. 32)
The term social occupation is not widely used in the literature. Therefore the research discussed in this paper uses a variety of terms and concepts that are related to social occupations. These include social support, social ties, social participation and social engagement.
Occupational therapy and occupational science is founded on the philosophy that occupations are vital to a persons well being (Law 2002). As such it is important that widows and widowers occupational needs are met when they are coming to terms with their loss and adjusting to widowhood.
The current literature surrounding the relationship between widowhood and social occupations is on the whole quantitative, and tends to focus on how social occupations affect the well-being of the widowed individual or on the frequency that widows and widowers carry out social occupations.
Kate Bennett has conducted several studies into the effects of widowhood on social engagement (Bennett 1997; 1998; 2005) in her 1997 study she focussed on the affects of bereavement on women and found that there was no difference between the amount of social engagement widowed women participated in and that of women who were still married or those who were never married. In her 1998 study Bennett looked at the effects of widowhood on men and found that unlike women, men’s levels of social engagement declined when they became widowers. In 2005 Bennett conducted a study that looked at both men and women and found that both men and women had lowered levels of social engagement and that this was particularly true for the more recently widowed participants. These findings contradict her 1997 study.
Similarly Thuen, Reime and Skrautvoll (1997) found that widows and widowers perceived themselves to have lower levels of social support than their married control group. They also found that widows and widowers who did have good levels of social support had better levels of psychological well-being, suggesting that social support has a buffering affect on the negative psychological consequences of widowhood (Theun et al. 1997). Li (2007) also found that social activities could have a positive effect on the well being of those who had been widowed. Li (2007) looked at the effects of volunteering on widows and found that it had a stress buffering effect and alleviated depressive symptoms. They found this to be particularly true for those who were already volunteering prior to the death of their spouse. Li (2007) also found that, contrary to the findings of Bennett (1998; 2005) and Thuen et al (1997), widows were more likely to volunteer, although this was generally a few years following their bereavement, which suggests that it may take a few years before feel able to increase their social occupations. Bennett (1998; 2005) and Thuen et al (1997) may have found reduced levels of social occupations as they did not follow their participants for long enough to see them begin to increase their social occupations.
A study by Zettel and Rook (2004) further indicates that it may take widows several years before they develop new ties. They found that there are three ways in which widowed women attempt to substitute for the loss of their spouse. They reported that these were by turning to their existing social networks, rekindling old ties and developing new ties. They found that widowed women are most likely to rekindle old ties following bereavement and that it was generally uncommon for the women to establish new ties within the first couple of years of widowhood. However, contrary to Li’s (2007) study, Zettel and Rook (2004) found that increasing social networks did not have a buffering affect on well being. In fact they found that greater network substitution was associated with declining emotional health and an increase in depressive symptoms. They suggested that this did not necessarily mean that increased social networks led to an increase in depressive symptoms, but that as people become more depressed they tried to seek out more substitution for their spouse.
Utz, Carr, Nesse and Wortman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study into widowhood. They found that immediately prior to the death of their spouse the widowed group had lower levels of informal social participation compared to the married group. However six months after their bereavement the widow’s levels of informal social participation had returned to similar levels to the married group. Utz et al. (2002) suggested that this was because the widows were more likely to have reported that they were caring for their spouses at the baseline measure and therefore may have reduced their levels of social participation to do this. Therefore following the death of their spouse they had been able to return to former levels of social participation. Utz et al (2002) also looked at formal social participation and found that there was no change in levels of this in the widowed group in the six months after their spouses death. They suggest that informal social participation increases because friends and family rally round but that formal participation may not increase because the widows would have to actively seek this out. It may also relate to Li (2007) and Zettel and Rook’s (2004) findings that it may take some time before widows begin to take on volunteering roles or establish new social ties.
As previously stated the majority of research into widowhood and social occupation is quantitative. However the findings are quite inconsistent. It may therefore be wise to take a more qualitative approach to research in the future. McIntyre and Howie (2002) did this using a case study methodology. Their participant reported that she valued social contact and being able to carry out activities with her friends and neighbours and felt that this was important in order for her to maintain her health and well being. This study is only based on the experience of one individual, yet it is able to give a rich and full account of her experience of widowhood.
The research into widowhood and social occupations has generated quite inconsistent results. This may be because the experience of widowhood is such an individual and subjective one that statistical analysis cannot fully comprehend the effects that it has. Therefore it may be time to start to take a more qualitative approach to the study of widowhood, in order to give the widows themselves a voice and to provide a rich understanding of their experience. This research will take this approach to try to give widowed individuals a voice in order to determine how widows and widowers experience social occupations.Methodology
Design
This study uses a Hermeneutic Phenomenological approach to qualitative research. Phenomenology gives the researcher the opportunity to investigate the lived experience of a phenomenon for several respondents, in order to investigate and describe the commonalities between their experiences (Cresswell, 2007). A hermeneutic style of phenomenology was chosen as it was thought that it would not be possible for the researcher to truly remove their understanding and feeling of the topic from the interview and data analysis process; hermeneutic phenomenology encourages the researcher to use their own interpretations to analyse the data (Cresswell 2007).
Respondents
Four respondents were involved in this study. Smith and Osborn (2008) report that three respondents is an acceptable number when research is being conducted by a novice researcher as this prevents them becoming overloaded by data. For this piece of research four respondents were interviewed as it was hoped that the researcher would be able to recruit an equal number of men and women. Unfortunately, only one man consented to participate in the study and so the final interviews were conducted with three women and one man.
The inclusion criteria for the study were that the respondents were retired at the time of bereavement, as individuals who are still working are likely to have social interactions whilst at work and this is likely to make their experience of social occupations different to those of someone who is retired. They were also required to have been widowed for at least eighteen months, as Stroebe, Zech, Stroebe and Abakoumkin (2005) found that at eighteen months widow’s levels of depression were reducing and it was felt that this would help to limit the chance of the participants becoming distressed by the interview. Finally, they had to be willing to talk at length about their experience of social participation since becoming widowed.
Before beginning the recruitment process a copy of the research proposal (see appendix 2) was sent to the School Ethics and Governance Panel for the School of Health Professions at the University of Brighton, for ethical approval. This was accompanied by a thorough risk assessment (see appendix 7). Once ethical approval was received the recruitment process began.
The participants were all members of a social ‘Breakfast Club’ for widows and widowers and lived in the South East of England. A recruitment poster was sent to the organiser of the Breakfast Club, which she then distributed to its members. Those who were interested in participating in the study were asked to contact the researcher, and were then sent a participant information sheet and a consent form which they were asked to sign and then return to the researcher.
In total five people returned consent forms (one man and four women). The forth woman to return her form gave her permission for her details to be kept in case another participant withdrew their consent to participate in the study. She was informed when it was certain that she would not be needed for the study.
Data Collection
It was decided that data should be collected in the participant’s home as it was felt that they would be more at ease and feel more comfortable talking about their experiences of widowhood in their own environment as it allowed them to have privacy during and after the interview and it was felt that a familiar setting would help them relax. The researcher was unable to find another venue that would offer the same level of privacy. A thorough risk assessment was completed and approved by the ethics panel in order to ensure that both the researcher and the participant were safe during the interview process (see appendix 7).
When the data was collected three participants were interviewed in their own home, and the fourth participant was interviewed in the house of a friend, who was also a participant, as she did not feel that she had the space in her own home. The participants agreed this before the researcher contacted them to arrange the interviews.
Data was collected using a semi-structured interview (see appendix 3) adapted from Smith and Osborne (2008).The ethics panel suggested that a pilot interview was conducted with a fellow student in order to try and ensure that the interview schedule would elicit detailed responses. This proved to be difficult as the student interviewed did not have any experiences that were relevant to the questions. However the pilot interview was useful as it allowed the researcher to familiarise themselves with the recording equipment.
The research interviews lasted between 53 and 76 minutes. During the longest interview there was a short break after 55 minutes. Interviews were recorded using an MP3 recorder and then transcribed verbatim by the researcher.
Data Analysis
The data was analysed using Smith and Osborne’s (2008) method of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). IPA allows the researcher to explore in detail how the participants make sense of their world, using the researchers own interpretation of the data (Smith and Osborne 2008). Smith and Osborne (2008 p. 53) state that the researcher is “trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their own world”. IPA was chosen for the data analysis process as it fits well with the philosophies of hermeneutic phenomenology while at the same time offering a structured method of analysis.
Consent to being tape recorded was obtained by the researcher before beginning the interviews. All interviews were recorded using an MP3 recorder and then transcribed using Microsoft Word 2003 and DSS Player-lite.
The interviews were analysed in the order in which they were completed. Each interview was analysed separately before the researcher looked for themes that were common to all of the interviews. Smith and Osborne (2008) report, that separate analysis of each transcript is preferable if the researcher is only analysing a small number of interviews.
Each transcript was read a number of times and any interesting or significant information was highlighted and annotated. Following this the transcript was re-read and any themes that had started to form during the initial annotation phase were noted. Where similar themes were found the same theme titles were used and the link highlighted. All the themes found in the transcript were then listed and those with connections were clustered together. These clusters then became super-ordinate themes (Smith and Osborne 2008). Each theme was also linked with examples from the transcript. When themes were found that did not seem to fit with the overall clusters or super-ordinate themes that were emerging they were discarded from the research.
This process was repeated with each transcript. During this process the researcher had to ensure that their reading of the transcript was not influenced by themes discovered in earlier data analysis. When new themes were discovered the researcher went back to the transcripts that had already been analysed to determine if the themes were also present there. When each transcript had been analysed they were compared to determine where themes converged. This allowed the researcher to examine the themes that ran through all of the participants experiences.
Themes
Following the analysis of all four transcripts six themes emerged relating to social occupations and widowhood. These were Change; Company; Barriers; Benefits; Maintaining Well-being and Variety.
Change
Each of the respondents talked about how different their social occupations were since the death of their spouse. Respondent Two reported that the death of a spouse “changes your life completely”. They all reported that their social occupations prior to becoming bereaved had predominantly taken place with their spouse. Respondent Two reported that his wife “more or less organised” their social occupations and that “when she went it disintegrated to a degree”. He therefore had to search for new social occupations following her death. This highlights how big a change he faced following his loss. Respondent Three talked about how she and her husband had very little time for social occupations due to his work “we didn’t have, we had very little spare time”. Respondent Four spoke of how her social occupations when her husband was alive revolved around his work “our social life was really wrapped up in all that”.
However, she also spoke of being involved in church activities before she was widowed and continued these after their bereavement as did Respondent One. Respondents Two and Three, however, had very few social occupations other than those conducted with their spouse. Respondent Three tried to explain this stating that “I suppose when you’ve got, your with somebody you don’t need to do other things”.
All the respondents spoke of how the amount of social occupations that they were involved in had increased since their bereavement, this was particularly true of activities such as eating out and going to the theatre. Respondent Two described how “in the last two years I’ve done more socialising that all the way through really”.
Respondent Four also spoke of the positive changes that came about in widowhood, reporting how people “hadn’t realised how much time they gave to their husbands… and now they’ve got time to make contact with friends.” This indicates that widowhood gives people the opportunity to take on or renew social occupations that they had previously not had time to do.
Company
Another theme throughout the transcripts related to having company, Respondent One reported that “the thing I miss most of all is company”. This seemed particularly important for Respondents One and Three who had never lived alone before. This meant a shift from nearly all occupations having some kind of social aspect to many of these occupations now being done alone Respondent One reported that “We did everything together, a lot together, which is a shame really because it does leave you with a void”. As a result the respondents need for company was a theme that ran through the interviews. They spoke of how much they disliked being on their own. Respondent One stated “I had never been on my own and I hate it” while Respondent Three said that “you’re on your own and it’s horrible”. Both respondents talked of how important it was for them to fill their time with social occupations and how having a routine made it easier as they knew when they would next have company. Respondent One stated how she goes to the Breakfast Club “because on a Wednesday morning I know I’m going out for coffee”.
Respondents Two and Four reported that they minded being on their own less, and that they were sometimes happy in their own company, but both spoke of the importance of having company, for Respondent Two this was the main reason for engaging in social occupations “it’s for company really… somebody to talk to once or twice a week”. While Respondent Four reported that “I like to go out with people” and that “I don’t necessarily need it, but I enjoy it.”
Barriers
All the respondents reported some trepidation around joining the Breakfast Club. This seemed to be particularly apparent for Respondents Two and Three, who had little experience of participating in groups. Respondent Two, the only male, talked about how daunting it was to attend the group as one of the only males “I thought I’ve got to walk over there you know and it was a bit awe inspiring”. He also reported that it was hard because joining groups and socialising with new people was not something he had done for a long time, “it’s not easy, especially when you haven’t done it for years”. He had also tried a different group before joining the Breakfast Club, but had found that it was not for him. He spoke of how the fact that all members of the Breakfast Club had bereavement in common made it easier to join. Respondent Three also found that lack of previous experience of joining new groups and clubs posed a problem for her, “I’m not really a club person, and I thought, oh I bet they’ll be really horrible and cliquey and I don’t want to go”. It was with the support of a friend that she was able to build the confidence to attend the group and she spoke about how she found doing things on her own very hard. Like Respondent Two she also found that it had helped that all the group members had something in common. She also felt that joining a new group was easier than it would have been to join an already established group.
For Respondents One and Four the barriers around beginning the Breakfast Club were quite different. For Respondent One the main barrier was that she did not know what was available, it was not until three years after her bereavement that she found out about the Breakfast Club.
Respondent Four was already participating in a variety of social occupations related to her church. For her, early on in her bereavement she felt she had enough in her life and only planned to join the Breakfast Club to support a friend. However by the time the new group started, several months after initially enquiring, she felt ready to join “I needed a few months, nine months, to sort of get over the initial shock”.
Benefits
All four respondents saw social occupations as a positive aspect of their lives. One of the biggest benefits that they saw in social occupations was that they offered routine and a way of filling the day. Respondent One spoke of how important it was to have a routine and know that there were days when she would be going out and seeing people, “I go [to the Club] because on Wednesday morning I know I’m going out for coffee”.
Respondents Three and Four both talked about how joining the group and increasing their social occupations gave them the confidence to try new things, and how joining the group meant that there was always someone to try these things with.
Respondent Two discussed how joining the group had given him a wider perspective on life, through listening to other peoples views and reported on the cognitive benefit joining the group had “it’s a good thing really, keeps your mind going a bit”.
All respondents talked about how glad they were that they had joined the group and reported that it had had a positive impact on their lives. Respondent Four reported that the group had given her “another dimension to her life” and how she saw it as an “advantage to belong to something”.
The respondents experiences of social occupations was overall a positive one and all the respondents spoke of how it had helped them since their bereavement.
The respondents also talked about how social occupations offered them the opportunity to give and receive support. It seemed important to them that they were able to offer practical and emotional support to others.
Maintaining Well-being
The respondents reasoning for engaging in social occupations related to the principle that meaningful activity was important for their wellbeing. The respondents reported that they believed it was important for them to keep busy in order to avoid becoming depressed.
Respondent Two joined the group soon after his bereavement because he felt that it would prevent him from becoming so depressed that he couldn’t “get out of it”. He talked about how you’ve “got to make a life for yourself”. It therefore seems that it was important for him to keep busy early on. Respondent Three also talked about having to do things for yourself “it’s not good sitting around moping because there is no one to help you so you just got to get on and do it”. She spoke about rebuilding her life through her friendships and social occupations and how keeping busy and occupied with social occupations helped her to get through the bad times “I have to keep going, to occupy myself, to get through the bad bits”.
Variety
All of the respondents were involved in a variety of social occupations. For the respondents who had family locally (One, Two and Four), these were important social networks with whom they could perform simple social occupations, such as going out for coffee or a meal. Respondent Three talked about how her friends were her family and she too relied on them as an important social network. She reported having a variety of different friends for carrying out different social occupations, and how they also offered her more instrumental support, such as taking her to the shops. For Respondent Three another social occupation was taking her dog for a walk, which provided her with another social group and support network.
Respondents One and Four were both very involved in their churches and events relating to them. Respondent One had also joined another social group for people on their own. Respondent Two was at the time of the interview only involved in social occupations with his family and the Breakfast Club. However he was looking for a position volunteering because he felt he needed “something to break up the week”.
The respondents also talked about how as a group the Breakfast Club had tried to encourage carrying out a variety of activities. It seems that having a variety of social occupations offered the respondents a range of activities to participate in and support networks that they could turn to.
Discussion
The theme of Change was an important one to the respondents in this study and links in with several of the previous studies relating to widowhood and social occupations. In Bennett’s (1997; 1998; 2005) three studies she discussed change in the amounts of social engagement that widows and widowers participated in. In her 1997 study Bennett concluded that there was no change in widowed women’s levels of social engagement, however in 1998 when she studied widowed men and in 2005 when she looked at both men and women she found that there was a decrease in levels of social engagement. Similarly Thuen et al (1997) also found that there was a reduction in levels of perceived social support following bereavement. Utz et al (2002) on the other hand reported an increase in the levels of informal support following the death of a spouse and suggested that this was to do with friends and family rallying round and widows having more time as they were no longer caring for their spouse. In the present study respondents reported an increase in the levels of social participation, they also reported that there was a change in the types of occupations they were involved in which no longer revolved around their spouse. All the respondents in the study had developed new social ties by joining the Breakfast Club, three of the four respondents did this within the first year, while the fourth reported that she would have joined earlier had she known about it. This contradicts the findings of Zettel and Rook (2004) who found that it was uncommon for widowed women to establish new ties in the first couple of years. It may be that the findings of this study differ to those of previous research as the club that the respondents had joined was specifically to offer support for widows and widowers so they may have joined this earlier than they would have a club that was not specifically to provide bereavement support.
The theme of Company is not discussed in the quantitative literature, probably because it is a concept that is hard to quantify. However it is mentioned in McIntyre and Howie’s (2002) case study. Their respondent talked about the value of social contact and how important it was for her to have this in order to avoid becoming lonely and bored. The fact that the quantitative research does not discuss the concept of Company reinforces the value of using qualitative methods to study widowhood as it allows the respondent to talk about what is important to them rather than the researcher assuming what is important.
As some of the research suggests that there is a decrease in social occupations for widows and widowers it was important for this research to identify the Barriers that were faced when the respondents began to look for new social occupations. For two of the respondents the main barrier was that it was a very new experience for them to become involved in a social group. It was particularly hard for the male respondent who felt daunted by being one of the few men in the group. There was also a fear about what to expect and what the people would be like, and the feeling that members would not include the respondent or make them feel welcome. It therefore was important to these respondents that all the group members had a common experience, and it also made it easier for them that it was a new group that meant sub-groups had not been formed within it.
For another of the respondent’s time since bereavement was a barrier. This respondent already belonged to groups relating to her church and initially after her bereavement felt that this was enough for her and that joining something new would be too much, however nine months after her bereavement she felt that she was ready to begin something new. This relates to the finding of Zettel and Rook (2004) and Li (2007) who both found that it may take a while before widows are ready to take on new social occupations, although this seems to be dependent on the individual as the male respondent began looking for new social occupations very soon after his bereavement. This may also relate to differences in how men and women cope with widowhood, but there is no way to confirm this as Zettel and Rook (2004) and Li (2007) did not investigate widowers and the present study only interviewed one male respondent.
The final barrier noted by the respondents was that they did not know what was available to them. It was three years before one of the respondents became involved in new social occupations and this was mainly due to the fact that she did not know where to go or what groups were available. This may relate to why Utz et al (2002) found that although levels of informal participation went up following bereavement there was no change in levels of formal social participation, as people may not know what formal social participation is available.
All of the respondents reported that for them being involved in social activities was beneficial. They all found that it had a variety of positive effects on their lives, including offering them a routine, filling their days, building confidence and providing the opportunity to do new things and someone to do things with. One respondent also reported that there was a cognitive benefit to social occupations. This relates to Thuen et al’s (1997) findings that social support had a buffering effect on the negative consequences of widowhood. Li (2007) also found that participating in social activities (in their case volunteering) had a buffering effect for widows. The respondent in McIntyre and Howie’s (2002) case study also spoke of the benefits of occupation, reporting how she felt they were important to keeping her cognitively well, and she also emphasised the importance of routine.
The respondent reported that Maintaining their Well-being was an important reason for engaging in social occupations. They reported that it was important for them to keep going with their lives in order to avoid becoming depressed or low. They felt it was important that they got on with their lives, and used their social occupations as a means of doing this. This fits in with the wider Occupational Therapy literature that suggests that meaningful occupations are vital to the well being of the individual (Law 2002; Creek 2002; Hagedorn 2000; Findlay 2004). The quantitative studies into social occupations and widowhood do not explore the reasons that people engage in the occupations they are involved in. This again shows one of the major limitations of using quantitative methods to research this area, as it is unable to look into anything that is subjective to the participants. McIntyre and Howie (2002) found that their respondent participated in social occupations as she felt that it helped her to maintain her health and well-being, she felt that without social occupations she would be bored and lonely and that her health would then deteriorate. This is very similar to the feelings of the respondents in the current study who reported that they did not want to become depressed.
The final theme was one of Variety. All respondents reported having a variety of social occupations and a variety of people to conduct them with. These included family, friends, people at church, people who walked their dogs locally and people from the Breakfast Club. All the respondents found that it was important to have this variety, as they were able to do different things with different people. This links to Zettel and Rook’s (2004) research that found that their were three different ways for widows to attempt to substitute for the loss of their husbands the first was to turn to their existing network, the second was to rekindle old ties and the third was to establish new ties. The three female respondents in the study had attempted to use all of these methods while the male respondent had turned to his existing social network and formed new ties, but did not mention rekindling any old ties.
The themes found during this study offer an insight into what aspect of social occupations are important to the respondents. It seems that for all the respondents the death of their spouse brought about a massive change in their social occupations. It also brought with it a need to seek out company and highlighted to them the importance of human social contact. The respondent’s faced a number of barriers to initiating new social occupations but they were able to overcome these because they felt that it was important for them to move on with their lives and not become too low. They also stated that they had benefited from engaging in a variety of social occupations with a variety of people in order to maintain a routine
Limitations
There are a number of limitations to this piece of research. Using a qualitative methodology has allowed the researcher to gain a rich understanding of the respondent’s experiences and what aspects of their social occupations are important to them. However, as with all qualitative research the findings are only relevant to these respondents.
The fact that all of the respondents attended a group for widows and widowers may mean that social occupations have a different meaning to them than to other widows and widowers because the respondents have proactively sought out new social occupations and this may be a sign that they are particularly sociable or, as Zettel and Rook (2004) suggest, were particularly low after the death of their spouse and sought out a means to try and compensate for their loss. It would therefore be interesting to carry out a similar study with widows who had not become involved in new social occupations since their bereavement.
Unfortunately the researcher was only able to recruit one male respondent, it was therefore difficult to note any gender differences in respondents approaches to social occupations, the one difference that was seen was that the male respondent joined the group much earlier in his bereavement than the female respondents, this could be a personal preference or possibly related to gender differences. A study that included more male respondents or that looked only at male respondents would be interesting to determine how the loss of a spouse affects men as the majority of the research focuses on women.
The participants in this study were quite heterogeneous, all coming from a white, British ethnic background. Their social occupations and needs may therefore be quite different to those of older widows and widowers from other ethnic backgrounds, which offers another area for further study.
The study was also very small scale due to it being the researcher’s first piece of qualitative research. A larger study would help to further consolidate the themes found and offer a wider range of experiences.
Conclusion
The main themes found in this piece of research were Change, Company, Barriers, Benefits, Maintaining Well-being and Variety. Some of its findings relate to previous research while other themes do not appear to have yet been addressed. The research also offers some contradictions to the findings of larger quantitative studies, for example finding that there was an increase rather than decrease in the amount of social occupations that widows and widowers are involved in. It highlighted important themes that have not yet been investigated by quantitative researchers such as Barriers to engagement, Maintaining Well-being, the issue of Company and the importance of Variety in social occupations. These themes may be hard to investigate quantitatively and therefore this piece of research advocates for more qualitative research to be conducted in this field. It is hoped that in the future Occupational Therapists will be able to use this and future research to help widows and widowers engage in social occupations that will facilitate them to maintain their health and well-being.
References
Bennett, K.M. (1997) A longitudinal study of wellbeing in widowed women. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 12, 61-66.
Bennett, K.M. (1998) Longitudinal changes in mental and physical health among elderly, recently widowed men. Mortality. 3, 265-272.
Bennett, K.M. (2005) Psychological wellbeing in later life: the longitudinal effects of marriage, widowhood and marital status. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 20, 280-284.
Clarke, C (2009) An introduction to Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: A useful approach for occupational therapy research. British Journal of Occupational Therapy. 72 (1), 37-39
Creek, J. (2002) The Knowledge Base of Occupational Therapy. In J. Creek (Ed) Occupational Therapy and Mental Health: Principles Skills and Practice. (3rd Edition). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone
Cresswell, J.W. (2007) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd Ed). London:Sage
Finlay (1999) Applying Phenomenology in Research: Problems, Principles and Practice. British Journal of Occupational Therapy. 62 (7), 299-306.
Finlay, L. (2004). The Practice of Psychosocial Occupational Therapy (3rd Edition). Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes
Hagedorn, R. (2000) Tools for Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Structured Approach to Core Skills and Processes. Philadelphia: Churchill Livingstone
Law, M. (2002) Distinguished scholar lecture: Participation in the occupations of everyday life. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy. 56 (6) 640-649.
Li, Y. (2007) Recovering from spousal bereavement in later life: does volunteer participation play a role? Journal of Gerontology. 628 (4), 5277-5266.
McIntyre, G. and Howie, L. (2002) Adapting to widowhood through meaningful occupations: a case study. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy. 9 (2), 54-62.
Patterson, I. and Carpenter, G. (1994) Participation in leisure activities after the death of a spouse. Leisure Sciences. 16, 105-117.
Smith, J.A. & Osborn, M. (2008) Interpretive phenomenological analysis. In J.A. Smith Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods. London: Sage.
Stevens-Ratchford, R. and Cebulak, B.J. (2004) Living with arthritis: a study of engagement in social occupations and successful aging. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Geriatrics. 22 (4), 31-52.
Stroebe, W., Zech, E. Stroebe, M.S. and Abakoumkin, G. (2005) Does social support help in bereavement? Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 24 (7), 1030-1050.
Thuen, F., Reime, M.H. and Skrautvoll, K. (1997) The effects of widowhood on psychological wellbeing and social support in the oldest group of elderly. Journal of Mental Health. 6 (3), 265-274.
UK Statistics Authority (2008) Marital status of people aged 65 and over: by sex and age, 2001: Social Trends 34. Downloaded on 22/07/08 from www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/ssdataset.asp
Utz, R., Carr, D., Nesse, R, Wortman, C.B. (2002) The effect of widowhood on older adults’ social participation: an evaluation of activity, disengagement and continuity theories. The Gerontologist. 42 (4), 522-533.
Zettel, L. and Rook, K. (2004) Substitution and compensation in the social networks of older widowed women. Psychology and Aging. 19 (3), 433-443.