'Gray divorce' on the rise, data shows. What's causing it?

(NEXSTAR) – The divorce rate may be trending downward, but one demographic is calling it quits more often.

Baby boomers and older adults are three times more likely to be divorced these days than they were in the 1990s, a study by Bowling Green State University found. The trend of getting divorced after 50 has been nicknamed "gray divorce."

One possible reason for the increase is simply that people are living longer, psychology professor Rosie Shrout explained in a post for Purdue University.

"People are less willing to endure unhappy marriages for so long and are more optimistic that they will find another partner. And so older adults are more willing to divorce than they were in the past," she said.

Shrout, who now teaches at the University of British Columbia, told NPR more older adults are realizing the toll a bad marriage is taking on their life, and making moves to prioritize their well-being.

"If that relationship is not good, if it is negative, hostile, filled with poor communication, is abusive, neglectful, that has extremely harsh effects on our health and wellbeing. And so being in a relationship — being in a bad relationship is much worse for our health than not being in a relationship," she said.

Women are more likely than men to initiate a "gray divorce," research shows. Boomer women are generally more financially independent than their mothers were, giving them more options to support themselves later in life.

The modern conception of what a marriage should be has also changed.

"Now we're expecting our partners to be, you know, our best friend, someone we want to have sex with, someone who's hopefully going to share in with household labor, be our main emotional support," said Dana Weiser, a human development and family sciences professor at Texas Tech, in an interview with NPR. "So we just are having higher expectations for our relationships, which means then there's more opportunity to fall short of those expectations."

Just because it's happening more often, it doesn't make it easier. Divorce is still costly, and if an older adult remains single, they may have a harder time supporting themselves financially into old age.