Data from a longitudinal study were used to examine differences among couples that cohabited before engagement, after engagement, or not until marriage. Survey data and objectively coded couple interaction data were collected for 136 couples (272 individuals) after engagement (but before marriage) and 10 months into marriage. At both time points, the before-engagement cohabiters (59 […]

In 2003, the Annie E. Casey Foundation convened a series of meetings with faith leaders and marriage promotion/education professionals to explore potential areas of collaboration in low-income communities. While the first session was informative, Casey Foundation staff and consultants remained curious about the extent to which the views of participating pastors were representative of theperspectives […]

A growing consensus confirms that divorce and unmarried childbearing generate high costs to children and taxpayers, including higher rates of poverty, welfare dependency, crime, school failure, Medicaid costs, mental illness, and child abuse. Even small reductions in rates of divorce and unmarried childbearing would carry a big payoff for children and for taxpayers. Research suggests […]

Marriage is down, cohabitation is up, and the divorce rate remains high in the United States. Further, in 1950, only 1 in 20 births were to an unmarried woman, whereas today, more than a third of American children are born outside marriage. These important demographic changes are evident in Canada, the United Kingdom, and in […]

This report finds that religious institutions are bulwarks of marriage in urban America. By fostering values and virtues that support marriage, these institutions-especially African American churches-help urban parents make the transition to marriage in communities where the practice of marriage has become increasingly infrequent. Moreover, the strong association between religious attendance and marriage in urban […]

In recent years, policymakers have become increasingly interested in exploring the relationship between public benefits rules and marriage. This interest has, in part, been prompted by social science research findings that, on average, children do best when raised by their two married, biological parents who have a low-conflict relationship. Interest has also been fueled by […]

This study explores generational and migration-related changes in gender and marriage in two locations of a transnational community of Mexicans: the sending community in western Mexico and the receiving community in Atlanta. The principal method was life histories, focusing on 13 women in Atlanta and their sisters or sisters-in-law in Mexico; life history informants’ mothers […]

Policymakers havebecome increasinglyinterested in exploringthe relationshipbetween public benefits rulesand marriage. Do the rulesaffect decisions to stay single,cohabit, or marry? If so, in whatways? Answering these questionsraises complex issues thatare endemic to any system thatprovides benefits on a group(i.e., family) basis rather thanlooking at individual needs. Thecomplexity becomes particularlyacute when eligibility for oramount of a benefit […]

We use data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth to investigate racial and ethnic differences in risk factors for marital disruption, with a particular emphasis on premarital cohabitation. Our analysis expands upon the array of risk factors considered in prior investigations of racial and ethnic differences in disruption and is among the first […]

As social science research data and government surveys increasingly show, the decline in marriagesince the 1960s has been accompanied by a rise in a number of serious social problems. Childrenborn out of wedlock or whose parents divorce are much more likely to experience poverty,abuse, and behavioral and emotional problems, have lower academic achievement, and use […]