Prospective Patterns of Resilience and Maladjustment During Widowhood George A. Bonanno Columbia University Camille B. Wortman State University of New York at Stony Brook Randolph M. Nesse University of Michigan Using prospective longitudinal data on an older sample beginning prior to the death of a spouse, G. A. Bonanno et al. (2002) distinguished 5 unique trajectories of bereavement outcome: common grief, chronic grief, chronic depression, depression followed by improvement, and resilience. These trajectories having been identified, the aims of the current study were to examine differences in how respondents in each group reacted to and processed the loss. Specific hypotheses were tested regarding differences in coping, meaning making, context, and representations of the lost relationship. Results suggest that chronic grief stems from the upheaval surrounding the loss of a healthy spouse, whereas chronic depression results from more enduring emotional difficulties that are exacerbated by the loss. Both the resilient and the depressed–improved groups showed remarkably healthy profiles and relatively little evidence of either struggling with or denying/avoiding the loss. The death of a spouse can be a painful and sometimes debili- tating experience. However, bereaved individuals differ markedly in how much and how long they grieve (Bonanno & Kaltman, 1999, 2001; Wortman & Silver, 1989, 2001). Comparisons across bereavement studies have revealed three basic patterns of out- come: common or time-limited disruptions in functioning (e.g., elevated depression, cognitive disorganization, health problems) lasting from several months to 1 to 2 years, chronic disruptions in functioning lasting several years or longer, and the relative absence of depression and other disruptions in functioning (for a review, see Bonanno & Kaltman, 2001). These patterns suggest potentially important implications for understanding the experiences of older bereaved adults. However, there remain a number of central but as yet unresolved questions. For example, because older bereaved adults generally experience less intense and less enduring grief symptoms (Lichtenstein, Gatz, Pedersen, Berg, & McClean, 1996; Nolen-Hoeksema & Ahrens, 2002; Sherbourne, Meredith, Rogers, & Ware, 1992; Zisook, Shuchter, Sledge, & Mulvihill, 1993), they may exhibit chronic grief reactions less often and the absence of grief reactions more often compared with younger bereaved adults. Perhaps an even more important issue is that because the vast majority of bereavement research is conducted after the loved one’s death, making it difficult to accurately estimate preloss functioning (Safer, Bonanno, & Field, 2001), the basic outcome trajectories typically observed during bereavement may not cap- ture the full range of grief outcomes. For example, at least some individuals experiencing prolonged depression during bereave- ment may have been depressed prior to the loss and thus may be more accurately viewed as suffering from chronic depression rather than chronic grief. Among those showing an absence of grief, it is not clear whether such a reaction is indicative of denial or inhibition, lack of attachment, or resilience in the face of loss (Bonanno, Papa, & O’Neill, 2001). Alternatively, some individuals showing absent grief may have had a spouse with prolonged, serious illness or a highly stressful marriage and thus experience marked reductions in depression after the spouse’s death (Bodnar & Kiecolt-Glaser, 1994; Cohen & Eisdorfer, 1988; A. Horowitz, 1985; Wheaton, 1990). In an effort to account for these possibilities, our research team recently examined depressive symptoms using longitudinal, pro- spective data from the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study (Bonanno et al., 2002). Specifically, we tracked depressive symptoms in older adults beginning on average 3 years prior to the death of a spouse and again 6 and 18 months after the spouse’s death. This approach revealed a more differentiated set of outcome patterns that both challenge core ideas in the bereavement litera- ture and suggest a number of potentially important implications for the quality of life among older survivors. A primary finding to emerge from this study was that large numbers of bereaved individuals appeared to be capable of genu- ine resilience in the face of loss. Nearly half of the sample (45.6%) showed low levels of depression at prebereavement and at 6 and 18 months following bereavement. These individuals also exhibited low levels of other grief symptoms (e.g., yearning). This pattern George A. Bonanno, Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychol- ogy, Teachers College, Columbia University; Camille B. Wortman, De- partment of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook; Randolph M. Nesse, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan. The research described in this article was supported by National Insti- tute on Aging Grants R01-AG610757 (Camille B. Wortman, principal investigator) and R01-AG15948-01A1 (Randolph M. Nesse, principal investigator). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to George A. Bonanno, Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 525 West 120th Street, Teachers College, Box 218, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. E-mail gab38@columbia.edu Psychology and Aging Copyright 2004 by the American Psychological Association 2004, Vol. 19, No. 2, 260 –271 0882-7974/04/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.19.2.260 260