Older widows and independent lifestyles.

Societies differ over the importance of individualistic/independent behaviors. In the United States, such behaviors are highly valued. Thus, subtle pressures exist on older widowed Americans to develop and maintain independent lifestyles. Respondents (N = 300) were older widows, age 60+, who were individually interviewed in their own homes. Various measures of self-sufficiency were derived from a list of fifteen life-maintenance tasks. The ability of widows to accomplish traditionally female tasks is significantly related to health, education, age, and work history, whereas their ability to accomplish traditionally male tasks is significantly related to income, living alone, and work history. Results did not support the hypotheses in that neither high levels of overall self-sufficiency or male-task sufficiency are related to widows' psychological well-being or life satisfaction.