The impact of object relations on adjustment in conjugal bereavement was examined. Atapproximately 6 months postbereavement, 46 midlife bereaved participants engaged in a narrativeinterview in which they were asked to discuss their past relationship with their deceased spouse.The Westen et al. object relations scoring system was applied to these narratives. Participants alsocompleted depression and grief-specific symptom measures at 6 months and again at 14 and 25months postbereavement. Object relations correlated differently with grief-specific symptoms anddepression; it was more strongly negatively associated with 6 month postloss grief-specificsymptoms while more strongly negatively correlated with depression at 25 month postloss. In agrowth curve analysis, more mature object relations was also predictive of a faster rate ofdecrease in depression over time. The results were discussed in terms of current theoreticalperspectives on what is required in successful adaptation to conjugal bereavement.