Chapter 5: Relationship Dissolution

Abstract

As in most other western developed countries, marriage breakdown has increased in Australia, particularly since the end of World War 2. While the increase in the rate of divorce in Australia has slowed since the 1980s and may have even stabilized and started to decline, the nature and characteristics of divorcing couples continue to change. It is very likely that these changes in divorce trends are underpinned at least in part by the rise of unmarried, or de facto , cohabitation (henceforth cohabitation) as an alternative or ‘stepping stone’ to marriage. Cohabiting relationships are less stable than marital relationships, but we know little about the stability of cohabiting relationships from official statistics. Thus, official statistics underestimate the true extent of relationship dissolution in the Australian population. In this chapter we document historical trends, explore changes in the nature and characteristics of divorce in Australia and examine differences in the dissolution of cohabiting and marital relationships using survey data.