Later Life Marital Dissolution and Repartnership Status: A National Portrait.

TitleLater Life Marital Dissolution and Repartnership Status: A National Portrait.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2018
AuthorsBrown, SL, Lin, I-F, Hammersmith, AM, Wright, MR
JournalJ Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
Volume73
Issue6
Pagination1032-1042
Date Published2018 Aug 14
ISSN Number1758-5368
KeywordsAge Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Divorce, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Socioeconomic factors, Spouses, United States, Widowhood
Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Our study compares two types of later life marital dissolution that occur after age 50-divorce and widowhood-and their associations with repartnership status (i.e., remarried, cohabiting, or unpartnered).

METHOD: We used data from the Health and Retirement Study to provide a portrait of later life divorce and widowhood for women and men. Next, we tested whether marital dissolution type is related to women's and men's repartnered status, distinguishing among remarrieds, cohabitors, and unpartnereds, net of key sociodemographic indicators.

RESULTS: Divorcees are more often repartnered through either remarriage or cohabitation than are widoweds. This gap persists among women net of an array of sociodemographic factors. For men, the differential is reduced to nonsignificance with the inclusion of these factors.

DISCUSSION: Later life marital dissolution increasingly occurs through divorce rather than widowhood, and divorce is more often followed by repartnership. The results from this study suggest that gerontological research should not solely focus on widowhood but also should pay attention to divorce and repartnering during later life.

URLhttp://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/04/29/geronb.gbw051.abstract
DOI10.1093/geronb/gbw051
User Guide Notes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27131167?dopt=Abstract

Endnote Keywords

Cohabitation/Divorce/Marriage/Remarriage/Widowhood

Endnote ID

999999

Alternate JournalJ Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
Citation Key6515
PubMed ID27131167
PubMed Central IDPMC6093496
Grant ListP2C HD050959 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
R15 AG047588 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R24 HD050959 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States