One of the main theoretical perspectives for understanding the mechanism responsible for the extensively reported mental and physical health disparities between divorcees and continuously married populations is the Selection Perspective. This perspective posits that due to “problematic personal characteristics of poorly adjusted people”, they are at higher risk for both divorce and poorer health outcomes. A criticism of this perspective is that it may contribute to divorce-related stigma, especially if there is insufficient empirical data to support it. The present study compared the Five Factor Model personality scores of 676 recently divorced Danes (Nwomen = 446, Nmen = 230) to the general Danish population normative data of the same instrument. Divorced women reported higher conscientiousness than the Danish norm, whereas divorced men had higher neuroticism scores than the Danish norm. Divorced participants of both genders had higher agreeableness and openness levels than the Danish norms. Though the differences were significant, they were small and did not provide compelling evidence for the Selection Perspective’s assumption, meaning that the recently divorced participants’ personality characteristics did not differ from the general population in ways that could be considered to constitute problematic personal characteristics. Future research should further evaluate the adequacy of the Selection Perspective.

Keywords: Big fivedivorcenormspersonality