Are Some Relationships more Useful than Others? The Value of Similar Others in the Networks of Recent Widows

Abstract

Contacts with other widows are often seen as having particular value for those who are coping with bereavement. Both the benefits of associating with other widows and the difficulties of maintaining ties with married friends make it likely that recent widows' friendship networks will show increasing `homophily', based on substituting widowed friends for married friends. We investigated these issues based on a year of longitudinal interviewing with 321 recently widowed women, aged 59-85 years, who provided data about their social support networks. Our results indicate that these widows did shift their networks toward greater association with others who had experienced this life event. We did not, however, find evidence that this was due to the amount or quality of the support they received from widowed rather than married friends. One possible explanation is that widows' preference for associating with their similar others has more to do with the nature of the companionship they share in such relationships, rather than with the provision of social support.