'He wasn't in that chair': What loneliness means to widowed older people

Bennett, KM ORCID: 0000-0002-2918-7628 and Victor, C (2012) 'He wasn't in that chair': What loneliness means to widowed older people International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 7 (1). pp. 33-52. ISSN 1652-8670, 1652-8670

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Abstract

We have little robust empirical evidence that articulates what being lonely means to older people and even less knowledge about what loneliness means to older widows and widowers; this article addresses that deficit. We undertook a re-analysis of 125 interviews with older people (aged 55-98) that explored their experiences of widowhood. In this article, we focus on those interviews in which participants described themselves as experiencing loneliness by the spontaneous use of terms such as "lonely", "loneliness" or "lonesome". Almost half of the participants (42%) described themselves in that way without any prompting from the interviewer. In terms of understanding and describing the meaning of loneliness, 50% explained loneliness in terms of absence of either their spouse, a physical presence in the house or people. One-third (34%) discussed loneliness in relation to time and place: night, weekends and home, and 4% described the emotional impact of loneliness. Fifteen per cent just said they were lonely without elaboration, assuming a common understanding of what loneliness means. Our findings suggest that widowed people's understanding and experience of loneliness resonates with the concept of "emotional" loneliness, resulting from the loss of significant social and emotional attachment. This has important implications for the types of interventions that may be appropriate for remediating loneliness in this group. © The Author.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	## TULIP Type: Articles/Papers (Journal) ##
Uncontrolled Keywords:	44 Human Society, 4403 Demography, Aging, 1.2 Psychological and socioeconomic processes, Generic health relevance
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2016 14:16
Last Modified:	24 Jan 2026 00:18
DOI:	10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.127133
Related Websites:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3002382
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