What Are the Risk Factors?

The rate of divorce among Americans 50 and older has more than doubled in the last decade, studies show. But precisely why is unclear. WSJ’s Carl Bialik discusses some of the factors accounting for the boom in divorces among boomers.

One surprising finding as researchers sift through the data is that one of the biggest risk factors is getting married for the second or third time—or more. Bowling Green State University sociologists Susan Brown and I-Fen Lin, co-authors of the not-yet-published paper “The Gray Divorce Revolution,” found that one of the best explanations for the rise in divorce rates among older Americans is that more of them already have been divorced once. Second and subsequent marriages have a 150% greater chance of ending in divorce than do first marriages.