Late life widowhood, selfishness and new partnership choices: a gendered perspective
Late life widowhood, selfishness and new partnership choices: a gendered perspective
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DOI：
10.1017/s0144686x01008169
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发表时间：
2001-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Davidson, K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Davidson, K
社会学很少关注老年人丧偶后的重新伴侣关系，以及年龄、性别和婚姻的意义如何影响对新的跨性别关系的选择。本文报道了对25名寡妇和26名鳏夫的深入，半结构化的访谈，这些寡妇和鳏夫年龄在65岁以上，丧偶至少两年，没有再婚。受访者被问及他们目前的生活方式和关系，以及他们是否考虑过再婚。“自私”和“自由”这些词经常被寡妇们用来描述他们现在的生活，这与不必一直照顾某人有关。很少有鳏夫提到自私，这更可能与失去配偶的愤怒感有关;没有一个男人将丧偶与自由感联系起来。本文认为，丧偶后的重新合作的愿望是性别特异性的：寡妇更有可能选择保持没有一个合作伙伴的内在因素：不愿意放弃一个新发现的自由;而鳏夫，年龄较大和健康状况不佳的外在因素是更突出的问题，在新的伙伴关系形成的选择和限制。
Little sociological attention has been paid to the repartnering of older people after widowhood, and how age, gender and the meanings of marriage influence choices about new cross-gender relationships. This paper reports on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 widows and 26 widowers over the age of 65, widowed for at least two years and who had not remarried. Respondents were asked about their current lifestyle and relationships and whether they had ever considered remarriage. The words 'selfish' and 'freedom' were often used by the widows when describing their present existence, which was associated with not having to look after someone all the time. Few of the widowers mentioned selfishness and this was more likely to be associated with feelings of anger at the loss of their spouse; none of the men associated widowhood with a sense of freedom. The paper argues that the desire for repartnering after widowhood is gender-specific: widows are more likely to choose to remain without a partner for intrinsic factors: the reluctance to relinquish a new-found freedom; while for widowers, extrinsic factors of older age and poor health are more salient issues in new partnership formation choices and constraints.