High levels of divorce, cohabitation, and fragile unions, especially among the less educated in the United States, mean that unprecedented numbers of children are growing up in families without two parents in a healthy, stable relationship. This family instability poses increased risks to children’s well-being and healthy development. This report by Alan J. Hawkins, […]
In The Forever Initiative, Hawkins calls for more state-directed public support for a series of educational efforts to help individuals and couples form healthy relationships and enduring marriages. He outlines an integrated set of feasible and affordable educational initiatives across the early life course, beginning in youth, continuing in early adulthood, engagement, and through the […]
The experiences of 15 state and community organizations in delivering group-based relationship education services to high-school age youth.
The percentage of children under the age of 18 who live with two parents decreased steadily for several decades (from approximately 85% in 1970 to approximately 68% by the mid-1990s1). Beginning in the mid-1990s, this decrease leveled off and the proportion of U.S. children who live with two married parents has since remained at approximately […]
Group Size: 10 or more (depends on space available) Time Needed: 10 to 15 minutes Goal: To help group get to know each other (great for first day introductions!) Audience: Couples, Singles, Parents, Teens, Children Special Considerations: Consider the education levels of your group members before you pick this activity. This activity is very loud. […]
There is a large spectrum of government services and programs that can be included in healthy marriage programs. The natural and immediate thoughts go to the human services field; however, there are many other areas that offer opportunities for healthy marriage/relationship programs. These include corrections and criminal justice, juvenile justice, health programs (including Medicaid and […]
Data shown here are provisional and include only events occurring within the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia).
This brief cites research that indicates children who grow up in healthy married, two-parent families do better on a host of outcomes than those who do not, and that many social problems affecting children, families, and communities could be prevented if more children grew up in healthy, married families. The federal Healthy Marriage Initiative is […]
In this testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, the benefits of the proposed Healthy Marriage Initiative are discussed. It begins by summarizing key provisions of the proposed initiative and noting research findings that indicate marriage skill education programs are effective in increasing couple […]
The Bush Administration has proposed to include new goals and funding in the federal welfare law for states to promote marriage among welfare recipients. The proposal is based on the assertion that the absence of marriage causes poverty and that marriage, per se, is good for children and for the country. But the proposal raises […]