title: Resilience to loss in bereaved spouses, bereaved parents, and bereaved gay men.
abstract: Recent research has indicated that many people faced with highly aversive events suffer only minor, transient disruptions in functioning and retain a capacity for positive affect and experiences. This article reports 2 studies that replicate and extend these findings among bereaved parents, spouses, and caregivers of a chronically ill life partner using a range of self-report and objective measures of adjustment. Resilience was evidenced in half of each bereaved sample when compared with matched, nonbereaved counterparts and 36% of the caregiver sample in a more conservative, repeated-measures ipsative comparison. Resilient individuals were not distinguished by the quality of their relationship with spouse/partner or caregiver burden but were rated more positively and as better adjusted by close friends.
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. gab38@columbia.edu
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Bonanno
authors.forename: Judith Tedlie
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Moskowitz
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papa
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Folkman
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001601:Bereavement; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*