Home Dissolution: What Happens After Separation?

Building a home and creating a family are highly inter­connec­ted processes. So what happens with the home when people separate or divorce? In this paper we address this question both from a quantitative and a qualitative approach. Based on an extensive database with socio-economic background data of 42,000 separated Danish couples in 2002, we follow the housing careers of both partners, to see how the housing situation of different types of people was affected by the separation. In the qualitative approach, nine interviews with couples who have parted shed light on the emotions and practical problems of dissolving a home. How to decide who should stay, who should move and how was it to stay alone in or to leave the matrimonial home?