SILVER SPLITTERS IN ITALY: DETERMINANTS OF DIVORCE RISK IN LATER LIFE

Antonella Guarneri , Istat
Romina Fraboni, Istat
Francesca Rinesi, Istat

In Italy, union dissolution has become more and more frequent notwithstanding the two stages’ process (separation followed by divorce). The processes of unions’ formation and dissolution has changed throughout the life course of individuals, not only in relation to the postponement of the family formation at first union, but also because, marital instability and the formation of new couples are emerging even in later stages of the life course. The international literature has coined the term "gray divorces" (or in a broader sense “silver splitters”) to refer to marital instability in old age. The idea is to study the risk of divorce in selected years in Italy considering the different characteristics of the spouses, the marriage cohort and the place of residence information. Main data source is the Base Register of Individuals (RBI) that is a collection of individuals derived from the integration of various administrative sources. RBI information would be integrated with elaboration on ISTAT "Acquisitions of citizenship". We will apply logistic regression models to examine how demographic characteristics (age, gender, citizenship), economic resources (education), territorial dimensions (place of usual residence, municipality typology) and marital characteristics (marriage duration) are related to divorcing in the past 12 months vs remaining married.

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 Presented in Session P1. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 1