The role of loneliness and social support in adjustment to loss: A test of attachment versus stress theory.

Abstract

A longitudinal study of a matched sample of 60 recently widowed and 60 married men and women tested predictions from stress and attachment theory regarding the role of social support in adjustment to bereavement.Stress theory predicts a buffering effect, attributing the impact of bereavement on well-being to stressful deficits caused by the loss and assuming that these deficits can be compensated through social support.In contrast, attachment theory denies that supportive friends can compensate the loss of an attachment figure and predicts main effects of marital status and social support.Attachment theory further suggests that marital status and social support influence well-being by different pathways, with the impact of marital status mediated by emotional loneliness and the impact of social support mediated by social loneliness.Results clearly supported attachment theory.One of the most widely shared truisms in bereavement research and practice is that support from family and friends is one of the most important moderators of bereavement outcome (e.g., Lopata, 1973;Sanders, 1993;W. Stroebe & M. Stroebe, 1987;Stylianos & Vachon, 1993).Yet, closer inspection of the bereavement literature suggests that the belief that social support can protect individuals against the deleterious effects of the death of a loved one is theoretically controversial and empirically not well supported.To clarify the role of social support in adjustment to bereavement, we first discuss predictions from the two major theoretical approaches relevant to bereavement: cognitive stress theory (e.g.,