Daily Emotional and Physical Reactivity to Stressors Among Widowed and Married Older Adults

Abstract

Objectives. Widowhood may result in declines in health and potentially stressful changes to daily routines. However, little research has examined how daily stressors contribute to physical and emotional well-being in widowhood. The objectives of the current study were to examine daily stressor exposure and reactivity in widowed versus married older adults. Method.Participants included all 100 widowed and 342 married adults aged 65 and older from the National Study of Daily Experiences, a daily diary study from the second wave of the Midlife in the United States. Daily stressors were measured using the Daily Inventory of Stressful Events; multilevel modeling assessed daily reactivity to stressors using daily negative affect (emotional reactivity) and daily physical symptoms (physical reactivity) as outcomes.Results. Married participants reported more stressors in general, and specifically more interpersonal stressors (e.g., arguments). Both married and widowed participants were reactive to daily stressors. Married participants were physically and emotionally reactive to interpersonal stressors. Widowed participants were more physically reactive to home-related stressors.Discussion. Attention to the types of daily stressors that widowed older adults experience in daily life and the potential physical effects of daily stressors during widowhood may help to alleviate some of the physical distress that widowed older adults may experience.

Association between marital status and cigarette smoking: Variation by race and ethnicity

“…One potential explanation for these findings is that widowed and married adults have been found to have similar exposure and emotional reactivity to stressors when excluding spousal arguments. 19 Across all three racial and ethnic groups, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among those who were widowed were lower than those who were divorced or separated. Yet, prior research often combined widowed with divorced and separated.…”

Everyday experiences of memory problems and control: the adaptive role of selective optimization with compensation in the context of memory decline

“…However, finding a relationship with a domain-general measure of control beliefs may be that much more “compelling” as compared to domain-specific control beliefs. We controlled for time in our analyses as previous work has done (Hahn et al, 2014) because over the 12 weeks of diaries there was a significant decline in self-reported memory problems. While short-term repeated measurement in diary studies may reduce recall bias (Bolger et al, 2003), the potential participant burden may result in a drop-off in reports over twelve weeks.…”

“…Covariates (age, gender, education, functional health, trait sense of control, and initial working memory) are not shown in Equation 1 but were included in the model. Level 1: MEMORY PROBLEMS ij = β 0 j + β 1 j (WEEKLY CONTROL ij ) + e ij Level 2: β 0 j = γ 00 + γ 01 (SOC) + γ 02 (MEMORY DECLINE)+ γ 03 (SOC*MEMORY DECLINE) u 0 j $${\mathrm{\beta }}_{1j}={\mathrm{\gamma }}_{10}+{\mathrm{\gamma }}_{11}false(\mathrm{normalS}\mathrm{normalO}\mathrm{normalC}false)+{\mathrm{\gamma }}_{12}false(\mathrm{normalS}\mathrm{normalO}\mathrm{normalC}*\text{MEMORY DECLINE}false)+u_{1j}$$ Because there was a significant drop-off in the reports of memory problems over the course of the 12 weeks of data collection, time was included as a covariate in the analysis as previous work has done (Hahn, Cichy, Small, & Almeida, 2014). …”

Self-regulatory strategies in daily life

“…Time (day 1, day 2, etc.) was also included as a covariate to account for the drop off in reports of memory problems that often occurs in diary data collection (Bolger et al, 2003; Hahn, Cichy, Small, & Almeida, 2013). …”