Happiness as a Complex Financial Phenomenon: The Financial and Psychological Adjustment to Widowhood in the U.S

Purpose: A person experiences two potential traumas upon the death of a spouse—the loss of companionship and the loss of resources the spouse brought to the household. The former loss has by definition occurred with a widow(er) event, while the latter can be mitigated through private insurance choices and public insurance program provisions. While the typical assumption is that financial shocks and long-term financial insecurity are detrimental to psychological well-being, there is little research on the relationship between changes in financial resources and the psychological well-being of widows and on how the adequacy of financial resources assist in the psychological adjustment to widowhood. The main purpose of this study is to examine the role financial resources play in improving the psychological well-being of widows as they adjust to a spouse's death.

Method: Our data are from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). In 2004, the most recent wave of the survey, there were 552 widows and widowers among the 1957 graduates who were interviewed in that year. To measure psychological well-being we use the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), a scale designed to measure depressive symptoms in the general population (Radloff, 1977). We use summary scores and also examine the subgroup scores in order to capture the positive and negative aspects of emotional adjustment to widowhood. The first category consists of somatic symptoms which, in this case, are consistent with individual bereavement, the second are those labeled as interpersonal affects—that is depressive symptoms that relate to one's interaction with others.

Results: It has no effect on men's satisfaction with their financial status and only one group of widows (those widowed 3-7 years) are on average less satisfied with their financial status. The effect of financial satisfaction is also to improve psychological health across the scales. It reduces the days of depression and increases the days one feels positively about oneself and about life. The additional effect of health insurance on depression is relatively small, but again no insurance has the curious positive effect, both reducing depressive days and increasing positive effects.

Controlling for financial satisfaction, widows and widowers are more depressed than are married men and women. Both shorter and longer-term widows are more depressed than are married women. More recently widowed women have more days of negative affect and fewer positive days. Over time these measures of psychological wellbeing approach those for their married peers, except for interpersonal/depressed affect days—when they felt lonely and sad. It appears that while sleep may improve over time, loneliness is a more permanent characteristic of widowhood.

Implications: The findings show the influence of the loss of companionship and security that was provided by the deceased spouse, suggesting that the availability and stability of financial resources play a larger role in how widows and widowers readjust psychologically after the trauma of a spouse's death. Authors present implications for social work practice and research about financial and psychological adjustment to widowhood in the U.S.