Elderly Women and Finding Meaning in Life after the Death of a Spouse

摘要

Finding meaning in life has been shown to promote higher levels of life satisfaction for elderly people. This study expands the literature by investigating how elderly widowed women, over the age of 70, constructed meaning in life after the death of their spouses. Twelve widows from a Southern Newfoundland community shared their experiences during semi-structured interviews. Transcribed comments from these audiotaped conversations were interpreted using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Rather than relinquishing their past lives, elderly widows chose to re-establish meaningful living by embracing and maintaining their independence; by remaining in activities they considered important; and by cultivating close and supportive connections to others. Practical implications from these findings for counselling and counsellor education, and recommendations for future research are discussed.