The Graying of Divorce: A Half Century of Change.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

We traced the historical arc of the rise in gray divorce (i.e., divorce that occurs among adults aged 50 and older) in the United States since 1970, elucidating unique patterns for middle-aged (aged 50-64) versus older (aged 65 and older) adults.

Methods

Data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 U.S. Vital Statistics Reports and the 2010 and 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) were used to chart the trends in gray divorce over the past half century. Drawing on the 2019 ACS, we estimated gray divorce rates across sociodemographic subgroups for today's middle-aged and older adults. We pooled the 2010 (N = 757,835) and 2019 (N = 892,714) ACS data to assess whether divorce risks are shifting for middle-aged versus older adults.

Results

The gray divorce rate was low a

SUBMITTER: Brown SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9434459 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature