The Psychological Significance of “Home” to Older Widows

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Abstract
Elderly widows are increasingly choosing to remain alone in their homes following the deaths of their husbands. For a number of reasons they are a more vulnerable group than married older women, and thus were expected to have less positive attitudes toward being homeowners. In the present study widows (N = 70) who live alone were compared to married women (N = 74) who who lived with only their husbands. Both groups lived in single-family dwellings. Subjects responded to an empirically derived Likert-type scale which measures four factors relating to “attachment to home.” Results indicated that widows had significantly higher scores on the Traditional Family Orientation factor and on the Competence in a Familiar Environment factor. One explanation of these findings is that the home may take on new meanings for widows as they reflect on earlier family experiences or as they discover that they can competently manage an independent lifestyle for themselves.

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