Living alone, partnership history and psychological well-being in mid-life
Living alone, partnership history and psychological well-being in mid-life
There is strong empirical evidence that psychological well-being deteriorates in a relatively short period surrounding a union dissolution, but also that experiencing multiple union transitions can have longer lasting consequences for psychological well-being. However, previous studies have rarely jointly considered the duration since the most recent union dissolution and the number of union transitions. This study uses data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) to investigate how the time since the most recent union dissolution and the number of union dissolutions are related to two indicators of psychological well-being, namely dissatisfaction with life and GHQ-12 caseness. The sample is restricted to 50-64 year old British men and women who are living alone and have ever been in a co-residential union. We focus on adults living alone in late mid-life as this is an increasingly common living arrangement in this age group and because their partnership histories are very diverse, with a considerable proportion having re-partnered at least once. Preliminary findings show lower psychological well-being in the two years following a union dissolution. Furthermore, psychological well-being is also lower for those who have experienced multiple union dissolutions. These findings are reported for both men and women, and remain unaltered when controlling for age, parenthood status and socio-economic status. However, the findings differ for the two measures of psychological well-being. These findings indicate that several aspects of partnership history are related to psychological well-being. Our approach also demonstrates that partnership dissolution is associated with lower well-being in the longer term
Demey, Dieter
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Berrington, Ann
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Evandrou, Maria
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Falkingham, Jane
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9 September 2013
Demey, Dieter
98bdaac3-ab8d-4985-b3e7-8b4824a4d867
Berrington, Ann
bd0fc093-310d-4236-8126-ca0c7eb9ddde
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Demey, Dieter, Berrington, Ann, Evandrou, Maria and Falkingham, Jane
(2013)
Living alone, partnership history and psychological well-being in mid-life.
British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Annual Conference, Swansea, United Kingdom.
09 - 11 Sep 2013.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Poster)
Abstract
There is strong empirical evidence that psychological well-being deteriorates in a relatively short period surrounding a union dissolution, but also that experiencing multiple union transitions can have longer lasting consequences for psychological well-being. However, previous studies have rarely jointly considered the duration since the most recent union dissolution and the number of union transitions. This study uses data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) to investigate how the time since the most recent union dissolution and the number of union dissolutions are related to two indicators of psychological well-being, namely dissatisfaction with life and GHQ-12 caseness. The sample is restricted to 50-64 year old British men and women who are living alone and have ever been in a co-residential union. We focus on adults living alone in late mid-life as this is an increasingly common living arrangement in this age group and because their partnership histories are very diverse, with a considerable proportion having re-partnered at least once. Preliminary findings show lower psychological well-being in the two years following a union dissolution. Furthermore, psychological well-being is also lower for those who have experienced multiple union dissolutions. These findings are reported for both men and women, and remain unaltered when controlling for age, parenthood status and socio-economic status. However, the findings differ for the two measures of psychological well-being. These findings indicate that several aspects of partnership history are related to psychological well-being. Our approach also demonstrates that partnership dissolution is associated with lower well-being in the longer term
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Published date: 9 September 2013
Venue - Dates:
British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Annual Conference, Swansea, United Kingdom, 2013-09-09 - 2013-09-11
Organisations:
Social Sciences
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Local EPrints ID: 356596
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/356596
PURE UUID: fc49924e-ac62-41ea-a70f-b9e4c12bf0f6
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Date deposited: 13 Sep 2013 14:11
Last modified: 23 Jul 2022 01:55
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Author:
Dieter Demey
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