Humor, laughter, and happiness in the daily lives of recently bereaved spouses

Update Item Information
Publication Type Journal Article
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Sociology
Creator Utz, Rebecca L.; Lund, Dale A.; Caserta, Michael
Other Author de Vries, Brian
Title Humor, laughter, and happiness in the daily lives of recently bereaved spouses
Date 2008-01-01
Description The positive psychology movement has created more interest in examining the potential value of experiencing positive emotions (e.g., humor, laughter, and happiness) during the course of bereavement. This study of 292 recently widowed (5-24 weeks) men (39%) and women (61%) age 50 and over examined both the perceived importance of and actual experience of having positive emotions in their daily lives and how they might impact bereavement adjustments. We found that most of the bereaved spouses rated humor and happiness as being very important in their daily lives and that they were also experiencing these emotions at higher levels than expected. Experiencing humor, laughter, and happiness was strongly associated with favorable bereavement adjustments (lower grief and depression) regardless of the extent to which the bereaved person valued having these positive emotions.
Type Text
Publisher Baywood Publishing Co.
Journal Title OMEGA--Journal of Death and Dying
Volume 58
Issue 2
First Page 87
Last Page 105
DOI 10.2190/OM.58.2.a
citatation_issn 0030-2228
Subject bereavement adjustment
Subject LCSH Positive psychology; Bereavement; Bereavement -- Psychological aspects; Happiness; Laughter -- Psychological aspects
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Lunds, D. A., Utz, R., Caserta, M. S., & de Vries, B. (2008). Humor, laughter, and happiness in the daily lives of recently bereaved spouses. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 58(2), 87-105.
Rights Management (c)Baywood Publishing Company http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/OM.58.2.a
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 95,974 bytes
Identifier ir-main,11253
ARK ark:/87278/s6bg36nk
Setname ir_uspace
ID 706816
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6bg36nk
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