Depressive symptom change around widowhood in later life: Big Five personality heterogeneity among U.S. older adults.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined within-person depressive symptom change around widowhood in later life and assessed whether baseline Big Five personality traits condition heterogeneity in this change among U.S. older adults.

METHODS: Using biennial panel data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (2006-2020), I estimated fixed-effects event-study models centered on the first observed widowhood onset. Depressive symptoms were measured with the CESD-8, and event-time coefficients were defined relative to the interview immediately preceding widowhood. Baseline Big Five traits measured before widowhood onset were entered jointly to estimate trait-specific moderation while accounting for correlations across traits. Of the analytic sample (11,482 respondents; 61,313 person-wave observations), 1,375 experienced a first observed widowhood onset during follow-up, and 10,107 remained continuously married.

RESULTS: Average depressive symptoms followed a time-structured pattern around widowhood onset. Already elevated in the interview immediately preceding the first observed widowhood compared with 2 waves earlier, symptoms increased further at the onset of the interview, attenuating over subsequent interviews. In the joint model including all 5 traits, neuroticism showed the most consistent evidence of moderation across post-onset interviews. Differences by extraversion and openness were concentrated in the early post-onset period, with higher extraversion associated with a larger increase in depressive symptoms and higher openness associated with smaller deviations. Agreeableness and conscientiousness did not show robust moderation after adjustment for the other traits.

DISCUSSION: Depressive symptom change around widowhood is heterogeneous and varies across phases of the transition. Personality-related differences are concentrated in specific event-time periods, particularly for neuroticism, extraversion, and openness.