Marital disruption and perceived well-being:

Using data from the longitudinal survey “Family and Social Subjects” carried out by ISTAT in two waves ( 2003 and 2007), this paper investigates the consequences of marital dissolution on individual subjective wellbeing in Italy. A key problem is disentangling causal effects, a challenge when the interplay between life course pathways and states of mind is investigated. Here we use propensity score matching estimates applied to panel data to estimates the impact of divorce or separation on a set of dimensions of subjective wellbeing. After a comparison among individuals with very similar profiles in terms of economic and social characteristics, results show as marital breakdown in Italy has a strong impact not only in reducing material well-being, but also on several dimensions of perceived subjective wellbeing, introducing uncertainty in the future (a form of psychological distress) with respect to housing, income and familiar conditions.