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Later Life Marital Dissolution and Repartnership Status: A National Portrait

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  • Susan L Brown
  • I-Fen Lin
  • Anna M Hammersmith
  • Matthew R Wright

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).MethodWe 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.ResultsDivorcees 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.DiscussionLater 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan L Brown & I-Fen Lin & Anna M Hammersmith & Matthew R Wright, 2018. "Later Life Marital Dissolution and Repartnership Status: A National Portrait," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(6), pages 1032-1042.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:6:p:1032-1042.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw051
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Susan L. Brown & I-Fen Lin & Anna M. Hammersmith & Matthew R. Wright, 2019. "Repartnering Following Gray Divorce: The Roles of Resources and Constraints for Women and Men," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 503-523, April.
    2. Carole Bonnet & Fanny Godet & Anne Solaz, 2019. "Gendered economic determinants of couple formation over 50 in France," Working Papers G2019/13, French Institute for Demographic Studies.
    3. Aimzhan Iztayeva, 2021. "Custodial Single Fathers before and during the COVID-19 Crisis: Work, Care, and Well-Being," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    4. Chen, Shuai, 2019. "Marriage, minorities, and mass movements," Other publications TiSEM 9cb1b11d-12e6-46a8-adca-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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