Adjustment to Divorce in Israel: A Comparison between Divorced Men and Women

Abstract

An attempt was made to examine the separate as well as combined impacts of thefollowing factors on postdivorce adjustment in Israel: time elasped after divorce, domains in the life space, and gender. Fifty divorced females and fifty divorced males were interviewed on their subjective well-being in eight domains of life at two periods of time. Six further indepth interviews were conducted on the same topics and periods. Among the main findings, (a) for both genders a process of improvement in their subjective well-being operates within 2-4 years; (b) there are separate patterns of distress and adjustment for divorced males and females; (c) the gap between the genders in overall adjustment to single life becomes more emphasized in the long run, while the structural divergence between domains is de-emphasized. Explanations are based on role differentiation as well as on the special characteristics of Israeli society.