Health and Well-being Effects on Later-life Divorce and Subsequent Repartnering

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去的二十年里，灰色离婚率翻了一番，每1000名50岁及以上的已婚人口中有5人离婚，现在有10人离婚。2010年，超过四分之一的离婚者年龄在50岁以上，而1990年这一比例还不到十分之一。近年来，随着人口老龄化，灰色离婚的增加，迫切需要调查与老年离婚有关的生命过程因素及其对个人福祉的影响。它还提出了关于灰色离婚后会发生什么的新问题：无论是通过同居还是再婚，重新结合的情况有多普遍？重新结合能在多大程度上改善离婚对个人福祉的负面影响？尽管“灰色离婚”正在加速发展，但社会科学家对晚年生活中出现的离婚和再婚缺乏基本的了解。我们使用1992-2010年健康与退休研究的前瞻性纵向数据来填补这一关键空白。我们估计离散时间事件历史模型来评估与灰色离婚和随后的re=伴侣关系相关的生命历程因素（例如，空巢、退休和健康状况不佳）。并且，我们使用潜在增长模型来调查灰色离婚如何与健康和经济福祉的轨迹相关联，以及重新合作在多大程度上提供了可观的福祉收益。在整个项目中，我们评估了性别、婚姻顺序和队列的差异。灰色离婚的影响是巨大的，不仅影响到夫妻双方，也影响到家庭成员（如子女和孙辈）的福祉，并对为老年人及其家庭设计的更广泛的制度支持系统提出了要求。整个社会将需要对老年人可用的家庭资源和支持的变化（和潜在的减少）做出反应。因此，该项目与NIA在其21世纪老龄化研究战略计划中所描述的研究重点保持一致。该项目包括两名本科生和一名研究生研究助理，让学生了解研究过程的各个阶段，并增强BGSU的研究环境。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The gray divorce rate has doubled in the past two decades, rising from 5 to 10 divorces per 1,000 married population ages 50 and older. More than 1 in 4 people who divorced in 2010 were ages 50+ compared with less than 1 in 10 in 1990. The recent rise in gray divorce coupled with the aging of the population foregrounds the urgency of investigating the life course factors associated with divorce during older adulthood and the ramifications for individual well-being. It also raises new questions about what happens after a gray divorce: how common is re-partnering, whether through cohabitation or remarriage, and to what extent does re-partnering ameliorate any negative effects of divorce on individual well-being? Although gray divorce is accelerating, social scientists lack a basic understanding of divorce and re-partnering that occur during later life. We use prospective, longitudinal data from the 1992-2010 Health and Retirement Study to begin to fill this critical gap. We estimate discrete time event history models to assess the life course factors (e.g., empty nest, retirement, and poor health) that are associated with gray divorce and subsequent re=partnering. And, we use latent growth models to investigate how gray divorce is linked to trajectories in health and economic well-being, as well as the extent to which re-partnering offers appreciable gains in well-being. Throughout the project, we assess variation by gender, marriage order, and cohort. The implications of gray divorce are substantial, shaping not only the couple but also the well-being of family members, such as children and grandchildren, and the demands placed on broader institutional support systems designed for older adults and their families. Society at large will need to respond to the shifting (and potentially diminishing) family resources and supports that are available to older adults. As such, this project aligns with the research priorities of the NIA described in its strategic plan for research on aging in the 21st century. Ths project fully incorporates two undergraduate and one graduate research assistant to expose students to all stages of the research process and enhance the BGSU research environment.