# WIDOWHOOD, BEREAVEMENT AND COPING

> **NIH NIH R01** · STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK · 1992 · $316,020

## Abstract

This proposal seeks support for five years to continue a comprehensive,
multidisciplinary investigation of conjugal bereavement.  Ultimate goals of
the project are to broaden our knowledge base regarding this life stressor,
and to help clarify the theoretical mechanisms through which bereavement
influences subsequent physical and mental health.  During the past five
years, we have had the opportunity to collaborate on a large-scale
interdisciplinary study of stress, health and adaptation across the
lifespan, in which a national probability sample of respondents (n = 3,617)
was interviewed in 1986 and again in 1989.  By including a component on
widowhood, we have developed the first nationally representative study (n
= 804 at Wave 1 and 616 at Wave 2) of conjugal loss.  The project also
includes two prospective components, one of which has already been
completed, and involves those respondents who lost their spouse between
waves of this large-scale survey (n = 92).  The second prospective study is
currently underway in the Detroit area, where older couples are interviewed
prior to the loss of their spouse (n = 1,532).  By monitoring state death
records, bereaved respondents and matched controls are located and
recruited to take part in follow-up interviews at regular intervals
thereafter (6-8 months, 18 months, 37 months, and 61 months following the
death).  In addition, biomedical data are collected from a subsample of the
baseline respondents and from all of those who become widowed.  Funds are
requested to continue analytic efforts on the large-scale, nationally
representative study and the national prospective study, and to continue
ongoing data collection, and analysis, in the Detroit study.  The major
aims of this study are to specify the impact of widowhood on mental and
physical health, and to clarify the long-term consequences of conjugal
loss; to clarify sex. age, and race differences in response to widowhood;
to determine the role played by pre-crisis coping resources, such as social
support, on the bereaved person's response to the loss and on the course of
recovery; and to delineate the theoretical mechanisms through which
particular coping resources may protect the bereaved from subsequent
problems in mental and physical health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3122719
- **Project number:** 5R01AG010757-02
- **Recipient organization:** STATE UNIVERSITY NEW YORK STONY BROOK
- **SAM.gov UEI:** M746VC6XMNH9
- **Principal Investigator:** CAMILLE B WORTMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1992
- **Award amount:** $316,020
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1991-09-30 → 1994-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3122719

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3122719, WIDOWHOOD, BEREAVEMENT AND COPING (5R01AG010757-02). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3122719. Licensed CC0.

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