Lixia Qu

Divorce and the wellbeing of older Australians

ABSTRACT In virtually all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries the number of older people who have experienced divorce at some point in their lives will increase in coming decades. While there is an extensive literature that analyses the effects of divorce on wellbeing, there is relatively little research on the long-run effects of divorce in later life. This paper uses Australian data to estimate the long-run impacts of divorce on the wellbeing of older Australians. Dimensions of wellbeing examined are social interaction and connectedness, perceived social support, life satisfaction, and physical and mental health. The paper shows that divorce has a long-lasting, negative impact on wellbeing that persists into later life for both men and women. However, the negative effects of divorce on wellbeing are largely confined to those who do not re-partner. An important difference between men and women is that for women who are divorced and remain single, the negative effects of divorce are found for general health, vitality and mental health. Furthermore, these effects are reasonably large. For older men, there appear to be no long-term effects of divorce on physical or mental health. While there appears to be some effect of divorce on perceived social support for both older men and women, the effects of divorce on social support are less pervasive in later life than the effects of divorce on satisfaction with life and, for women, health.

The Disappearing Link between Premarital Cohibitation and Subsequent Marital Stability, 1970-2001

Previous research has demonstrated that marriages preceded by premarital cohabitation have higher rates of dissolution than those in which the couple marry without first living together. Most of this research relies on data generated by couples who cohabited in the 1970s and early 1980s when premarital cohabitation was relatively uncommon and usually of brief duration. Since then, premarital cohabitation in Australia has become normative and thus less prone to selection effects. The period of premarital cohabitation has also lengthened and is thus more likely to provide opportunities to screen out unviable matches. This paper uses national survey data from Australia to explore whether, in the light of these changes, the previously observed higher level of marital dissolution among those who live together before marrying has persisted. It demonstrates that the higher risk of marital dissolution among those who cohabited before marriage has declined substantially in the 1990s marriage cohort and, after controlling for selection factors, has disappeared altogether.

Family structure, co-parental relationship quality, post-separation paternal involvement and children’s emotional wellbeing

Abstract It is well documented that children who experience parental divorce are more likely than those in intact families to experience a range of emotional and behavioural adjustment problems, and to perform less well academically. However, few studies of the impact of divorce have exclusively considered young children. This paper takes advantage of a recent Australian child cohort study to examine links between young children’s emotional wellbeing, the quality of the co-parental relationship, and post-separation paternal involvement. We found that while children aged 6–7 years living with both parents generally had better emotional wellbeing than similar aged children living with one parent, inter-parental hostility was an important factor in explainingyoung children’s emotional wellbeing. But regardless of family type, children whose parents had a hostile inter-parental relationship tended to have poorer emotional wellbeing than children whose parents did not have a non-hostile relationship, as reported by children and their parents.

Legislative aspirations and social realities: empirical reflections on Australia's 2006 family law reforms

The Australian government has recently introduced a Bill into Parliament that is intended to improve the way concerns about family violence and child abuse are dealt with in the context of post-separation parenting disputes. The move follows recent reports examining the impact of significant reforms to the family law system introduced in 2006. Motivated by a desire to ensure that children maintain involvement with both parents after separation and to place greater emphasis on non-court-based dispute resolution mechanisms, the reforms encompassed legislative change and new and expanded relationship services. The empirical evidence base on the 2006 reforms has highlighted shortcomings in the existing responses to family violence and child abuse, with one large-scale study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) demonstrating that a history of family violence was as prevalent among shared care arrangements as other arrangements, contrary to the intention of the reforms. This article uses the empirical findings from the AIFS Evaluation to reflect on some key theoretical ideas about how law operates. The Evaluation findings highlighted the prevalence of a history of family violence among separated parents in Australia and provided evidence that this issue complicates the fulfilment of the reform objectives in a range of ways, most obviously in the context of applying appropriate dispute resolution processes and making parenting arrangements that safeguard the well-being of children.

Starting and ending one-person households: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract Statistics on one-person households in Australia are primarily based on cross-sectional data, in particular census data. While analyses based on points in time are important in detecting trends in living alone rate and factors and circumstances associated with living alone, this approach is likely to understate the extent to which people may experience living alone at some stage in their life. More importantly, analysis based on cross-sectional data is not able to capture the processes that lead a person to live alone or give up solo living. Despite the rise in one-person households in Australia, there has been little research on the dynamics of forming and ending solo living. Drawing on the data of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (Wave 1 to Wave 4), this article explores change of one-person households and the processes that may lead to form and end one-person households.

Mandatory Dispute Resolution and the 2006 Family Law Reforms: Use, Outcomes, Links to Other Pathways, and the Impact of Family Violence

Abstract Community-based mandatory family dispute resolution (more generically known as family mediation) is a central plank of the 2006 changes to the Australian family law system. This paper provides an overview of the data on family dispute resolution from the Australian Institute of Family Studies’ evaluation of the 2006 changes. It reports on usage rates of family dispute resolution as well as immediate and medium term outcomes, perceived pathways towards resolution and the impact of family violence on both outcomes and pathways. Though the story is a generally positive one, the data also suggest a need for family relationship sector practitioners and family lawyers to engage proactively in assisting those families who are experiencing significant violence and or significant levels of ongoing serious conflict.