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.

Recent widows' kin support and orientations to self-sufficiency.

This paper examines two issues: the role of the adult child network in task support to widows, and whether widows' attitudes toward independence result in lower levels of task support. Data on recently widowed women suggest that many are quite self-sufficient; however, in those areas where support is needed, they largely rely on children. Widows' past experiences and attitudes toward independence influence the amount of overall help they receive, whereas income, number of children, and perceived willingness of children to help affect the proportion of help that comes from children.

Financial experience and well-being among mature widowed women.

Widowhood for women may be complicated by a lack of financial experience or knowledge, further diminishing well-being. Analyzed were data from 300 widowed women aged 60 and older regarding financial experience prior to widowhood, planning undertaken before death of spouse, and their effects on well-being in early widowhood. Shown by the findings was that preparation was associated with somewhat better well-being among widows, but financial experience prior to widowhood had no effect.

Adolescent discipline: Different family members' perception.

Adolescence is perhaps the most difficult period of child rearing for parents. This study attempted to identify disciplinary techniques used by parents as perceived by mothers, fathers, and their adolescent children. Results indicated several significant areas of intrafamilial disagreement in regard to disciplinary techniques utilized, although all subjects tended to agree that some form of verbal reasoning was the primary disciplinary technique utilized with these adolescents.