In recent years, the number of fragile families has risen markedly in urban America. Nevertheless, no research has yet determined if religious participation is associated with higher levels of relationship quality and lower levels of domestic violence among parents in fragile families. Research on religion and married parents indicates that religious participation is associated with […]

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this brief examines the role of””marriage markets”” in explaining differences across racial and ethnic groups in rates of marriage in the year following a nonmarital birth. We use the term marriage market to refer to the supply of men relative to women in a local […]

An audio/video recording of the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center’s Technical Assistance Webinar “”Effectively Launching Your Healthy Marriage Program””, held May 16, 2007. Includes concepts and frameworks for programs that want to enhance service delivery, retention and recruitment.

In the last four decades, marriage rates have declined among all Americans, but especially among minorities and lower-income Americans. Research on the retreat from marriage has focused on a range of factors, from the absence of marriageable males to the impact of changes in welfare policy, but it has largely overlooked the role that religious […]

Marital quality typically declines following the birth of a (first) child, as parenthood brings new identities and responsibilities for mothers and fathers. Yet, it is unclear whether nonmarital relationship quality follows a similar trajectory. This paper uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N=2,500) with latent growth curve and difference-in-difference models to […]

Researchers and policy makers have long been concerned that government policies may influence individual behavior in unintended ways. In particular, they worry that by providing mothers with an income that is independent of marriage, welfare and child support policies may discourage marriage and increase union dissolution. Economic theory is clear with respect to the marriage […]

The family arrangements of Latinos in the U.S. are increasingly diverse, with growingnumbers of Latino children living in households headed by married and unmarried parents.Latinos also tend to be more religious than the population at large. Yet no research has examinedthe associations between religion and relationship quality among married and unmarried Latinos.Using data from the […]

Most analyses of time and resource allocation in couple households ignore what couples do with their money, assuming that money is “”absolutely fungible, qualitatively neutral, infinitely divisible, [and] entirely homogeneous”” (Zelizer 1994). If, instead, couples’ money management sets the agenda for household bargaining and serves as a mechanism by which couples “”do gender””, we should […]