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Tribune News Service

“In sickness and in health.” Is it a lifetime binding promise or an out-of-fashion phrase for marriage?
Older adults are divorcing at increasingly higher rates these days, and it could have to do with illness – depending on who is getting sick. A new study suggests that health plays a factor, but gender roles might be the linchpin behind it all.
A study by Italian researchers published in the Journal of Marriage and Family considered the relationship between health and the divorce rates in older adults.
The study used 18 years of data – ranging from 2004 to 2022 – from 25,542 European heterosexual couples aged 50 to 64.

It showed some eye-opening results. When the wives in marriages between older adults became ill or suffered some kind of physical limitation, the divorce rates began to rise.
“Conversely, the risk of silver splits did not change significantly when the man experienced poor self-rated health or activity limitations compared to couples in good health,” the study authors stated.
A new pattern of ‘silver splits’
American psychologist Mark Travers, with degrees from Cornell University in New York State and the University of Colorado Boulder, in the United States, thinks the study results are largely because of cemented gender roles decades in the making.
Societally influenced from an early age to value domestic skill sets, women have taken on an unfair burden of responsibilities around the home, he said.
“The deep-seated expectation that a wife will always ensure that the home runs smoothly is so ingrained, to the extent that any deviation from this role may feel like, or be legitimately considered, a rupture in the marital bond,” he wrote in Psychology Today magazine.

To Travers, this breach in a “marital contract” could be behind the newly discovered pattern of older adult divorces.
“It goes without saying that expecting women to shoulder these duties alone, in the first place, is both archaic and unrealistic,” he wrote.
“These responsibilities should always be shared between spouses. In reality, however, this sadly isn’t always the case – not even when wives face health struggles.”
The ‘grey divorce’ factor
Older adults are splitting at surprising rates these days.
According to research from Bowling Green State University in the US state of Ohio, instances of “grey divorce” tripled from 1990 to 2022. As a result, roughly 15 per cent of all people 65 or older in the US had been divorced in 2022.
Based on marriage rate data from the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, around 39 per cent of all US marriages ended in divorce from 2000 to 2022.

For every 1,000 US adults, an average of 6.2 got married. A significant minority did not last, with an average of 2.4 people getting divorced.
As to why older adults are divorcing at higher rates each year, Rosie Shrout, a human development and family science assistant professor at Purdue University in the US state of Indiana, largely laid it at the feet of longevity.
“Some possible reasons for grey divorce are because of our increased longevity. People are less willing to endure unhappy marriages for so long and are more optimistic that they will find another partner,” she said.
“And so older adults are more willing to divorce than they were in the past.
“Because people are living longer, there are more opportunities to develop new romantic relationships across adulthood, including after a divorce or widowhood.”
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Divorce rates in older adults rise when wives get sick, study finds

When the wives in marriages between older adults became ill or suffered some kind of physical limitation, the divorce rates began to rise, a new study finds. Photo: Shutterstock

A university professor suggests that one of the reason for more “grey divorce” is people’s increased longevity. Photo: Shutterstock

Psychologist Mark Travers. Photo: Mark Travers 

Roughly 15 per cent of all people 65 or older in the United States had been divorced in 2022. Photo: Shutterstock

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Family & Relationships

But rates do not change significantly when it is the husband who becomes ill or suffers physical limitation, a study of Europeans discovers


But rates do not change significantly when it is the husband who becomes ill or suffers physical limitation, a study of Europeans discovers.


Sex and relationships

Ageing society

Divorce rates in older adults rise when wives get sick, study finds

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}But rates do not change significantly when it is the husband who becomes ill or suffers physical limitation, a study of Europeans discovers

But rates do not change significantly when it is the husband who becomes ill or suffers physical limitation, a study of Europeans discovers