Divorce and the wellbeing of older Australians
David de Vaus, Matthew Gray, Lixia Qu and David Stanton
La Trobe University, Australian Institute of Family Studies and Australian National University
Contact Email: matthew.gray
aifs.gov.au
As the first generation that experienced high rates of divorce reaches retirement age, the number of older Australians who have experienced divorce at some point in their lives will increase dramatically in coming decades. The impact of this is compounded by the structural ageing of the Australian population. Experience of divorce has been shown to have an adverse impact upon living standards in later life (de Vaus, Gray, Qu and Stanton 2007). There are reasons for believing that divorce, in certain circumstances, may also increase the likelihood of experiencing social isolation. There are likely to be gender differences in the consequences of divorce in older age.
This paper extends the work into the financial consequences of divorce to examine the connections between divorce, a wide range of measures of wellbeing and the level of support received from families, friends and neighbours. Data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) are used. The effects of an ageing population combined with those approaching retirement having much higher rates of divorce than preceding generations will mean that the issues relating to the consequences of divorce for older people will be of high public policy relevance.
Paper
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Copyright © 2007 Social Policy Research Centre.
