Repartnering Following Divorce: Implications for Fathers’ Relations with Their Adult Children after Midlife

Claire M. Noel-Miller, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Although the negative implications of divorce for fathers’ relations with their adult children are well documented, research to date has overlooked the role of aging divorced fathers’ new unions in shaping their intergenerational ties. Yet, the vast majority of divorced men go on to repartner. Based on longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, this study focuses on two important measures of intergenerational relations: social contact and fathers’ financial support. Adopting the perspective of adult children from a divorced father’s prior union, I (1) examine whether repartnering alters divorced fathers’ intergenerational relations (2) contrast the effect of divorced fathers’ remarriage and cohabitation (3) investigate the role of divorced fathers’ acquisition of new (step)children in shaping their intergenerational ties. Using latent growth curve models, this study examines the effect of divorced fathers’ new unions on both the initial status and the trajectory of change over time in father-adult child relations.