Is divorce bad for the parents?

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Dr Karen Glaser on Tel: 0207 848 2554; e-mail:

ESRC Press Office:
Kelly Barnett on Tel: 01793 413032, e-mail:
Danielle Moore on Tel: 01793 413312; e-mail:

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

1.The research project ‘Disruptions in family and work life: Implications for support in later life’ was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It was carried out by the Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London, specifically: Dr Karen Glaser, Professor Janet Askham, Dr Cecilia Tomassini (University of Molise, Italy), Rachel Stuchbury and Professor Anthea Tinker. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/sspp/geront/res/dfr.html

2.Methodology. The project is based on secondary analysis of national datasets, in particular the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2003), the British Retirement and Retirement Plans Survey (1988/89), and the Italian 1998 Indagine Multiscopo sulle Famiglie “Famiglia, soggetti sociali e condizione dell’infanzia” (Multipurpose Survey on Family and Childhood Conditions).

3.The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It supports independent, high quality research which impacts on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s planned total expenditure in 2008/09 is £203 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

4.ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

5.The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peer review. This research has been graded as ‘Good’.