A recent Australian study shows women are much poorer than men after a divorce, men say they are lonlier, sadder and their mental health is more fragile immediately after.
Within four years, however, men have begun to recover emotionally and their finances have improved considerably. But women's incomes have gone backwards, according to an article from http://straightfurrow.farmonline.co.nz.
"Both men and women take a hit after separation," said David de Vaus, professor of sociology at the University of Queensland, and co-author of the study. "Women are much poorer financially, men are much poorer socially."
The study, to be presented at the 2010 Australian Institute of Family Studies conference recently, shows men's income in real terms is almost 20 percent higher four years after separation, in line with general income trends, but on average women's income is 2 percent less.
And separated men are more likely than women to call themselves "poor" and to complain of financial hardship, despite an average income of almost $42,000 compared with $36,000 for separated women. "It doesn't mean men are just moaning. We don't know what their expenses are," Professor de Vaus said.
The study, by researchers at the University of Queensland, the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian National University, has followed an initial sample of 14,000 people, to track their circumstances from two years before a break-up to four years after.
It also shows that many of the negative effects attributed to divorce are often already present before the break-up.
"Separation is much more probable among couples who are not doing so well to start with. They are poorer, less well-educated and more isolated," de Vaus said. "But divorce has short-term and medium-term effects and, financially, women take a long-term hit."
A year after the breakdown, 48 percent of men who had not found a new partner reported often feeling very lonely compared with 39 percent of the single women. But four years after the breakdown, the proportions of lonely men had fallen to 29 percent and of lonely women to 28 percent.
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(c) 2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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