Gray Divorce and Loneliness in Later Life: A 27‐Country Longitudinal Within‐Person Analysis

ABSTRACT Objective This study estimates within‐person changes in loneliness around the transition to gray divorce in a 27‐country framework, and explores between‐country heterogeneity. Background Gray divorce is increasingly common, and loneliness may be one adverse consequence. However, data specifically focusing on late‐life divorce, within‐person change around this event, and cross‐national differences remain scarce. Methods We estimate multilevel random slope models using eight waves of data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (2004–2022), which contain longitudinal information on 893 individuals from 26 European countries and Israel. Because loneliness is available only in Waves 5–9 and complete covariate information is required, the main models use 1664 observations from 790 individuals. Results Loneliness increases in the post‐divorce period compared to the pre‐divorce period ( B = 0.45; p < 0.01). Estimated between‐country heterogeneity in this within‐person change is small and imprecise (random‐slope variance = 0.03). The cross‐level interaction analyses are exploratory and suggest that the post‐divorce increase may be larger in contexts characterized by a lower percentage of divorced people among those aged 50 and over, higher religiosity, and lower economic development. Conclusion Gray divorce is associated with a within‐person increase in loneliness across a wide range of countries, but evidence for cross‐national variation in this increase is limited and exploratory. Implications Gray divorce should be recognized as a potential risk factor for loneliness in later life. Further research is needed to clarify whether and how national contexts shape the magnitude of this increase.