Weakened parent–child ties and the well-being of older divorced parents

Abstract

BACKGROUND The consequences of declining parent–child ties after divorce have primarily been studied for children’s well-being and not for parents’ well-being. Some parents lose contact with their children after divorce, and one would expect that such a decline in contact hampers their emotional well-being, in particular when parents are older and children are adults. OBJECTIVE This study aims to describe the association between how much contact divorced fathers and mothers have with their children and parents’ well-being in old age. METHOD This report uses a survey with a register-based oversample of divorced parents and children from the Netherlands in 2017 ( N = 4,641). Parents (mean age 62) reported about life satisfaction, health, and loneliness and on contact with two adult children (mean age 34).