Measures of communication and aggression, taken from 56 newlywed couples, were used to predict marital outcomes 4 years later. Aggression discriminated between separated or divorced couples and those who remained married. In contrast, communication discriminated between couples who were maritally satisfied after 4 years and those who were married but dissatisfied. Thus, over the 1st […]

On November 15 and 16, 2001, more than 50 researchers, policymakers, practitioners, corrections officials, and other specialists in the field of fathers and families gathered in Philadelphia, PA, to convene the National Center on Fathers and Families’ (NCOFF) “”Roundtable on Constructing and Coping with Incarceration and Family Re-Entry: Perspectives from the Field.”” The discussion at […]

On the assumption that differences in faith traditions may prompt difficulties for married couples, this descriptive study examined interfaith couples’ reports of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation, communication during a religious disagreement,social network composition, and social support (N = 87). Spousal intrinsic religious orientation (a strong commitment to faith) is associated with reports of marital […]

This paper uses newly available information from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Survey to investigate how unmarried mothers’ and fathers’ expectations about marriage, in addition to their socio-economic and demographic characteristics, are related to transitions to marriage in the year following their child’s birth. It also investigates factors that are associated with unmarried parents’ […]

This article reports the results on marriages of a randomized clinical trial for couples experiencing the transition to parenthood. In addition to a control group, there was 1 intervention, a psycho-communicative-educational 2-day couples’ workshop. The outcome measures were marital quality, postpartum depression, and expressed hostile affect (assessed using an observational coding of marital conflict discussions […]

This National Marriage Project information brief discusses ten research findings on marriage for young adults.

The nearly universal perspective of marriage as an indispensable social institution has been changing significantly in recent decades. Besharov and West (2002) present evidence which shows that over the past fifty years, for all Americans, marriage rates have declined while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed. Negative changes have been greatest among African Americans. […]

Whose responsibility is it to assume the leadership and primary responsibility for public policy concernedwith adolescent pregnancy and too-early childbearing? Health care professionals and advocates firstalerted the public to the problems associated with adolescent pregnancy in the mid-seventies. Initially thefederal government assumed the leadership on this issue and in 1978 established the first federal programsolely […]

Ravenell (2006) reports that a review of health and health perceptions in young African American men (15-45 years old) finds that African American males are disproportionately affected by accidental injury, human immunodeficiency virus and cardiovascular disease. These conditions are preventable and are amenable to primary care intervention yet young African American men underutilize primary care […]

This report presents the highlights of a national workshop attended by research, policy, and data experts from academia, nonprofit organizations, and government. It summarizes the presentations, the recommendations of the discussion groups, and the consensus of workshop participants on targets of opportunity for improving data on marriage, divorce and cohabitation. The targets of opportunity were […]