Data shown here are provisional and include only events occurring within the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia). Provisional birth, death, and infant death data in this report are based on a combination of counts of events provided by each reporting area and registered vital events processed into National Center for Health […]
An overwhelming majority of Americans still aspire to be happily married, yet more than three decades of high divorce rates, changes in social norms, and changes in the structure and organization of families make this goal seem difficult for many to achieve. In the wake of these changes, a new consensus is emerging among academic […]
Evolving patterns of marriage and divorce are at the core of studying changes in family composition and living arrangements. The timing of the age at entry into first marriage often reflects the period when people enter adulthood, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s or the economic prosperity of the post-World War II era. […]
This testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy focuses on the benefits of healthy marriage education initiatives. Information is shared on the bipartisan support of strengthening marriage initiatives, components of a healthy marriage, different types of marriage education initiatives, and findings from research that demonstrate the positive effects of marriage […]
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 […]
In this testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, Dr. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, the Co-Director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, discusses the benefits of marriage. She begins by exploring the reasons for marriage and then describes the economic, educational, and emotional benefits of marriage […]
A remarriage occurs when a previously married person marries again. This fact sheet reviews information regarding remarriage patterns, trends and issues in the United States. Please note that this fact sheet is limited because the national surveys and databases that allowed for analyses of marriage patterns no longer exist (Kreider, 2005). Thus, much of this […]
The potential for stress over money does not go away just because you retire. In fact, it can become more intense. In order to minimize that stress, you must have a solid plan for managing money during your retirement years. This Tip Sheet offers 5 steps to take to create a plan. (Author abstract)
This federally funded brief discusses how the rise in the popularity of cohabiting is linked to other important shifts in family patterns in the United States, and provides information on the number of cohabiting couples with children, different types of cohabitation, and research findings on cohabitation. Evidence is cited that indicates cohabiting before marriage is […]
To explore the similarities and contrasts between poor and non-poor families, Child Trends analyzed data for more than 100,000 families from the 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health. Our results suggest that, although poor families experience socioeconomic disadvantages, these families may be enriched by the strengths found in their family routines and relationships. Specifically, we […]