Grief and resilience in elderly women who have lost their partners over the course of life

Abstract

Grief over the loss of significant people can be traumatic at any stage of life. In old age, coping with and processing grief becomes even more challenging. This study aims to understand how older women adapt to the grieving process throughout life, identifying factors that contribute to resilience in this context. This is a qualitative study conducted through a narrative literature review. It was identified that religiosity, spirituality, social support, participation in sociocultural activities, and individual resources promote resilience in old age. From a psychoanalytic perspective, grief is understood as a healthy process of elaborating loss, whereas melancholia characterizes a pathological condition. Based on Kübler-Ross, it was observed that coping with death and grief can be understood through five stages, which do not occur linearly but reflect the diversity of emotional reactions to loss. Furthermore, it was found that female aging is affected by factors such as the feminization of old age, loneliness, and social invisibility, which intensify the challenges of this period. There is a need for careful attention to older women who have experienced significant losses, in order to develop mental health care and intervention programs tailored to their specific needs