A Study on the Predictive Variables of Divorce and Differences in the Quality Of Life According To the Matter of Divorce in Old Age

Abstract

• This study aimed to understand the effects of divorce on the quality of life of the elderly. The objectives are first, this study analyzed differences in the quality of life between divorced elderly and married elderly, and second, with it understood differences in lives between divorced elderly and married elderly, by analyzing the predictive variables of the matter of divorce. The data used in the study were from the 14th year data of Korea Welfare Panel 2019, with a total of 3,572 elderly people (286 divorced and 3,286 married) aged 60 and above. The quality of life of the divorced elderlies was lower than the one of the married elderlies. In other words, the divorced elderlies smoked more, had lower self-esteem, and showed the lower household income and lower satisfaction with family income than the married elderly. As their registration rate of public pension was also lower, the life of old age in the future is predicted to be unstable. Also, the divorced elderly showed the lower satisfaction with family life, lower satisfaction with children, and lower satisfaction with social acquaintance relationship than the married elderly. And, according to the logistic regression analysis, the satisfaction with children showed the biggest influence as a predictive variable of the matter of divorce.