Purpose

Bereavement is far reaching and has a significant impact on many lives as widow(er)s are faced with countless changes to their everyday routines, their relationships and their consumption patterns. It is in this context that the purpose of this study is to examine the links between the meanings of bereavement for widows and the types and sources of social support sought. This deepens the understanding of the reasons for the success or failure of service encounters and thus contributes to consumer well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative study was carried out to gain more insight into this issue. A total of 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with French widows 59 years of age and older. To fully understand the diversity of bereavement experiences, the authors examined the following factors: life trajectory, life, as the spouse’s/partner’s death, support received and/or solicited and the success or failure of service encounters.

Findings

The findings suggest that bereavement experiences hold different meanings related to the types and sources of the preferred support. The following six classes were identified: dealing with administrative and financial issues, maintaining parental roles, enduring the memories of the circumstances of the spouse’s/partner’s death, reorganizing daily life, facing the loneliness of widowhood and expressing the affects of bereavement. These classes help to identify the conditions for the success or failure of service encounters.

Originality/value

The following two avenues emerge that contribute to the well-being of widows: “loss-oriented” and “restoration-oriented” bereavement classes of meanings. The former is embodied by widows primarily seeking “nurturant support” who expect self-oriented and relationship-focused service behaviour on the part of service providers, and the latter by widows primarily seeking “action-facilitating” support who expect “task-oriented” service behaviour from service providers. These results should allow service providers to be aware of when to prioritize the task, the self and/or the relationship, to provide a successful service encounter for consumers of bereavement services.

中文翻译：

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丧亲的意义和社会支持服务成功的条件

目的

丧亲之痛影响深远，对许多人的生活产生重大影响，因为寡妇的日常生活、人际关系和消费模式都面临着无数变化。正是在这种背景下，本研究的目的是研究丧亲之痛对寡妇的意义与所寻求的社会支持的类型和来源之间的联系。这加深了对服务遇到成功或失败的原因的理解，从而有助于消费者的福祉。

设计/方法/方法

为了更深入地了解这个问题，我们进行了定性研究。共对 59 岁及以上的法国寡妇进行了 24 次深度访谈。为了充分了解丧亲经历的多样性，作者检查了以下因素：生活轨迹、生活、作为配偶/伴侣的死亡、获得和/或寻求的支持以及服务遭遇的成功或失败。

发现

研究结果表明，丧亲经历具有与首选支持的类型和来源相关的不同含义。确定了以下六类：处理行政和财务问题，维持父母角色，忍受配偶/伴侣死亡情况的记忆，重组日常生活，面对寡居的孤独感和表达丧亲之痛的影响。这些类有助于识别服务遇到成功或失败的条件。

原创性/价值

出现了以下两种有助于寡妇幸福的途径：“以损失为导向”和“以恢复为导向”的丧亲意义类别。前者体现为主要寻求“养育支持”的寡妇，他们期望服务提供者有以自我为导向和以关系为中心的服务行为，后者体现为主要寻求“促进行动”的支持，期望“以任务为导向”的寡妇服务提供者的服务行为。这些结果应该允许服务提供者知道何时优先考虑任务、自我和/或关系，以便为丧亲服务的消费者提供成功的服务。