Overview
In many European countries and societies around the world, family diversity is increasing. Families increasingly extend beyond the traditional nuclear structure, encompassing diverse arrangements such as single-parent households, stepfamilies, or same-sex parent families. Social scientists interested in population change have tended to view family diversification as a phenomenon that occurs in early and midlife. However, more people are experiencing diverse living arrangements at advanced ages. This ‘greying of family diversity’ is fuelled by three major processes. For one matter, people now reaching retirement age have often undergone separation, divorce or remarriage and family reconstitution at some point in their lives, resulting in more interrupted family trajectories. Secondly, patterns of family behaviour at advanced ages have changed: divorce and separation rates have increased disproportionately at later ages, heralding a “grey divorce revolution.”
This greying of family diversity poses unprecedented societal challenges around health and care needs in old age. Since health declines with age, family transitions at older ages can have a greater negative impact than in midlife. By combining disciplinary insights from sociological and medical research, and by examining policy processes in countries facing similar issues in different parts of the world, researchers can support governments in the design and implementation of public policies that respond to the impact of changing family arrangements on health in ageing populations.
To read more, please click the link: ECPD_PolicyInsights_2026.1.