Widowhood (both male and female) is an increasingly prevalent social role. Given the age structure, the number of widows in the society will certainly increase, and given changing mortality regimes, the amount of time spent in the role will increase. Although there are various studies of widows in the literature, they tend to be based on small local samples and lack a multidisciplinary perspective. This study will use more than ten existing data sets to look at widowhood from a demographic, social psychological and socioeconomic perspective. From a demographic view point we will consider family formation and relationships, migration and living arrangements. The social psychological perspective will deal with life satisfaction, morale, self concept, patterns of contact with friends and relatives and other variables. The socioeconomic analysis will be concerned with health, wealth, income, consumer expenditures and the general financial status of widows. Each of the three areas of concern will be studied in light of the other two. For example, life satisfaction cannot be understood without taking living arrangements, family status, health, financial status and other variables into account. The use of multiple data sets, such as the retirement history survey, The National Longitudinal Survey, the NORC General Social Survey, the 5000 families study, the Harris survey of the Elderly, the Health Interview Survey, the Survey of Institutional Persons and several others will permit us to maximize our knowledge of widowhood on the basis of available data and to compare results from various sources. While each survey is strong in some area and weak in others, their joint use will provide maximum information. The final report will consist of a series of chapters on each of the various topics, assessing what is known, what available data permit us to find out and providing various new analyses of existing data. A final chapter will suggest a strategy of research for the future. Most analysis will use a causal modeling perspective and depend heavily on the LISREL modeling procedure.