Lead researcher, Dr. Caterina Trevisan, of the University of Padua in Italy, said the presence of a husband made women “more likely to feel stressed and find their role restrictive and frustrating.”
The new study shows that as Italian widows age, they have better lives than wives.
Trevisan added: “Since women generally have a longer lifespan than men, married women may also suffer from the effects of caregiver burden, since they often devote themselves to caring for their husbands in later life.”
She also pointed out that there’s a lower risk of depression in unmarried women.
Single women also have less anxiety, greater job satisfaction and higher activity levels at work; while they also maintained stronger relationships with family or friends, the scientist said.
Finally, widows cope better than widowers with the stress deriving from the loss of a partner and widowhood.
Many studies have shown that women are less vulnerable to depression than men in widowhood, probably because they have greater coping resources and are better able to express their emotions.
Trevisan believes that women tend to be independent as they age.
“Left alone, women can take care of themselves better than men, especially when it comes to people who were over 65 in 1995.
“Managing the family’s social life makes them less likely to be isolated after grieving for their deceased husbands,” she submitted.
On the other hand, women who remain married and got older, “often have an assistance role towards their husbands” and this can be wearing.
Losing their husbands relieves them of this “burden” which puts them in better condition than their married peers.
Elderly spinsters were also more physically robust and less likely to suffer weight loss and exhaustion than women who were married.
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