Influence of self-esteem on the subjective well-being of older divorced and widowed adults

This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the influence of self-esteem on an older individual's well-being after the loss of a spouse through divorce or through death and to determine if the relationship was comparable for both groups. The study was posited in a framework of symbolic interactionism. The participants were 109 divorced and 110 widowed individuals over 50 years of age. These participants were part of two larger research projects: 'The Divorced Elderly: Biopsychosocial and Economic Factors Affecting Adjustment' conducted by the Psychosocial Division of the College of Nursing, University of Utah, and 'Bereavement in the Elderly: Factors in Adaptation,' which was funded by the National Institute on Aging (Grant No. R01 AG-02193). Measurement of self-esteem was obtained from a coding scheme developed to classify participants' response on the 20 statements test. Measurements of subjective well-being were obtained from the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Life Satisfaction Index-A and an array of single-item indicators about a variety of loss-related feelings and behaviors that had been factor analyzed into five global subscales. The findings indicate that the well-being of divorced and widowed individuals was similar except that the divorced experienced more anger, guilt and confusion, while the widowed individuals were more depressed. Correlation coefficients and Fisher's z indicated that self-esteem influenced subjective well-being and that the influence was similar for divorced and widowed individuals. The influence was always in the direction of high self-esteem being associated with more favorable scores on the various measures of well-being. Stepwise multiple regressions of selected descriptive variables on the subjective well-being measures for the two samples revealed that the individual's perception of one's personal health was the major indicator of subjective well-being following either divorce or widowhood.