Gray Redivorce: Marital Instability in Later Life among the Previously Divorced

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Families and Aging

Abstract

Objective: This study examines how people who have been divorced more than once experience marital disruption in later life, a phenomenon that remains understudied despite rising rates of gray divorce in the United States.

Background: While prior research has documented the economic, health, and social consequences of gray divorce, much of it has centered on the experiences of individuals whose marriages ended after decades of matrimony. Less is known about how previously divorced people navigate and adapt to marital dissolution in later life.

Method: This study addresses the void by drawing on in-depth interview data from a sample of people (n = 16) who have been divorced two or more times, with at least one occurring after age 50. Guided by life-course perspective, it identifies thematic patterns in how these individuals talk about and make sense of marital dissolution after 50.

Results: Findings reveal three core themes: (1) recurring experiences and meaningful variations in marital separations over the life course; (2) the cumulative economic, social, and health impact of repeated divorces; and (3) diverse processes of meaning-making and identity reconstruction in later life.

Conclusion: Gray divorce creates unique experiences and perspectives for previously divorced people, highlighting the need to incorporate marital biographies into research on aging, relationship instability, and family complexity.

Author

• Chris Wienke, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale