Grief and social support after the death of a spouse

The death of a spouse is one of the most stressful events in a person's lif e. Social support has been shown to be widely beneficial in moderating the effects of both chronic and acute stress. The answers of Finnish widows and widowers (n=318) were analysed in order to investigate the sources of soci al support, what is the nature of support received, and whether social supp ort is connected with coping with grief. The Hogan Grief Reactions Checklis t was used to describe the grief as well as answers to open-ended questions about what helped the widowed persons cope with their grief. Kahn's theory of social support was used as a framework in the content analysis of the o pen-ended answers. The results showed that Finnish widows and widowers rece ive social support most often from their own family and friends. They perce ived the received support most helpful, but also the support that the griev ing person can give to other family members is seen as important. Results s uggest that those who had had social support were able to grieve by allowin g themselves to disorganize and experience panic behaviour.