Later-Life Divorce and Parent-Adult Child Contact and Proximity

Abstract

This study explores how parental divorce that occurs after children have reached adulthood affects parent–adult child contact and proximity. Data are from two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) and include 1,463 respondents. The findings suggest that divorce affects parent–child contact and proximity differently for mothers and fathers. Compared with stably married fathers, fathers who divorced were more likely to experience a decline in coresidence and weekly contact with at least one adult child. However, divorced mothers were more likely than stably married mothers to report an increase in weekly contact with an adult child. At the same time, the data intimate that divorce may slightly increase mothers’ likelihood of little or no contact with an adult child.