Talk about love and intimate relationships in a finnish 50+ magazine

Abstract

Having and being in a relationship is a vital part of the lives of most adult people. However, old age is often seen as a time of loneliness, life without an intimate partner. Traditionally this has been due to widowhood, but nowadays, often, also due to divorce. The situation has changed so that nowadays among the 65-75 year-olds it is more usual to be a divorcee than to be a widow or a widower (Borell and Ghazanfareeon Karlsson, 2003). There is also a big difference in opportunities and restrictions between women and men in the ‘partner market’ in later life (de Jong Gierveld, 2002; Carr, 2004). For example, in Finland women over the age 73 are more often single than married, whereas men reach the same situation at the age of 88 (Statistics Finland, 2008).