Table 1.

Means (and Standard Deviations) or Proportions for All Variables Used in Analysis, Bereaved Spouses, Changing Lives of Older Couples, 1987–1994 (N = 210)

Dependent variables, 6 months
Depressive symptoms (CES-D)	0.42 (1.21)
Anxiety	0.05 (1.01)
Yearning	0 (1.0)
Anger	0 (1.0)
Intrusive thoughts	0 (1.0)
Independent variables
Afterlife beliefs
Believes in afterlife	0.68
Does not believe in afterlife	0.19
Does not know if afterlife exists	0.13
Loved ones reunited in afterlife
Agree strongly	0.39
Agree somewhat	0.21
Disagree strongly/somewhat	0.07
Those who suffer unjustly are rewarded in afterlife
Agree strongly	0.25
Agree somewhat	0.29
Disagree strongly/somewhat	0.13
Preloss health characteristics
Depressive symptoms (CES-D), baseline	0.07 (0.98)
Anxiety	0.00 (0.76)
Self-rated health: fair/poor	0.33
Demographics
Age	70.56 (6.94)
Gender (1 = female)	0.72
Race (1 = black)	0.15
Education (in years)	11.27 (2.92)
Household income	21,049 (16.417)
Owns home (1 = yes)	0.92
Psychosocial characteristics
Marital warmth, baseline	−0.07 (0.80)
Religious coping, baseline	0.16 (0.94)
Months between baseline and Wave 1 interview	37.27 (18.17)

Note. CES-D = Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression.