Background

The Present Study

Method

Results

Discussion

References

Abstract

The authors used data from the 1994, 2002, and 2012 General Social Survey (N = 1,450) to examine whether support for divorce has increased among adults aged 50 years and older. Consistent with the rise in the gray divorce rate, today’s older adults were more accepting of divorce than their predecessors were two decades ago. Attitudinal change was modest between 1994 and 2002, but accelerated after 2002. The acceleration was primarily due to period rather than cohort change, signaling the role of broader shifts in the meaning of marriage as it has become deinstitutionalized. Older birth cohorts and individuals who were either divorced or remarried were especially likely to hold supportive attitudes toward divorce.

Discussion

Divorce is now common across the adult life course and actually on the rise among older adults (Kennedy & Ruggles, 2014). Consistent with our expectations, older adult support for divorce has increased. In 2012, nearly two thirds agreed that divorce was the best solution for couples who could not work out their problems whereas support hovered at 56% in 1994. Older adults were more supportive of divorce than were younger adults, and this gap grew over time. Drawing on a social change perspective (Firebaugh, 1992, 1997; Ryder, 1965), we assessed the extent to which this change was due to cohort replacement versus intracohort change. Initially, the growth in supportive divorce attitudes was quite modest in magnitude and was driven primarily by cohort replacement. During the more recent period, intracohort change was the main reason why there was an increase in favorable divorce attitudes.