More Seniors Consider Divorce

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

There is an increase in the number of seniors aged 80 and older considering divorce, statistics showed Tuesday.

The Korea Family Legal Service Center said that more and more seniors are seeking counseling from the center concerning divorce or other family issues.

From September 2006 to last August, the center dealt with 331 counseling cases, of which 4.8 percent were those aged 80 and older.

``It's quite unusual,'' Yang Jung-ja, director of the center, said. ``Before September 2006, we did not have a single counseling case among those in their 80s.''

The increase is attributed to an increase in life expectancy and senior citizens still wanting to maintain the patriarchal system, which causes problems for older couples, she said.

But divorce cases of senior citizens have not yet been reported, she said.

There was also an increase in the number of those seeking help from the center in their 60s and 70s, which made up 7.8 percent and 3 percent of the center's counseling cases, respectively.

For younger couples, the center is also seeing cases where the wife's parents are playing a greater role in marriages, which has often lead to husbands considering divorce.

Of the many reasons for divorce, husbands who were poorly treated by their parents-in-law, accounted for 16.4 percent. According to the center, over the past two years this has become one of the major reasons that husbands are seeking divorce.

``Interestingly enough, the role of the wife's parents has become more important in marriage as more and more women are becoming financially independent, and consequently, women's parents are demanding more from their sons-in-law just like the husband's parents have done in the past,'' Yang said.

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr