Study: Women Suffer Financially, Men Lonely After Break-Up

(NewsCore) - A break-up leaves women worse off financially but a new Australian study published Wednesday found that men are much lonelier and sadder, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"Both men and women take a hit after separation," said David de Vaus, professor of sociology at the University of Queensland, and co-author of the study.

"Women are much poorer financially, men are much poorer socially."

The study, by researchers at the University of Queensland, the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian National University, tracked people's progress over the course of a break-up.

According to the study, four years after a separation, men's income in real terms was 20 percent higher and was in line with income trends but a woman's income was on average two percent less.

However, men were more lonely. About 48 percent of men who had not found a new partner within a year after a separation reported feeling very lonely, compared with 39 percent of single women.

Four years after a separation this proportion fell to 29 percent of men, compared to 28 percent of women.

Men were also less likely to feel satisfied with their life in the year after their break-up, with only 29 percent satisfied, compared to 38 percent of women. This grew to 42 percent for men and 52 percent of women within three years.

But de Vaus said that even four years on, those who separated were less happy than couples who never divorced.

Even so, men were almost as happy as they were in the final year of their marriage and the women were happier.

(This article is provided by NewsCore, which aggregates news from around News Corporation.)