ANA seeks to support projects that include approaches to improve child well-being by removing barriers to form and sustain healthy marriages and strengthen families in Native communities. Studies have shown a clear link between healthy marriages and child well-being. A component of the Administration for Children and Families Healthy Marriage Initiative, the Native American Healthy […]
Using a representative sample of children born to unwed parents drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study investigates whether marriage after childbirth has a causal effect on early child cognitive ability, using a treatment outcome approach to account for the selection into marriage. Comparing children with similar background characteristics and parental […]
This brochure provides a brief description of the Native American Healthy Marriage Initiative (NAHMI) including goals, targeted strategy, funding opportunities, and training and technical assistance resources. It also includes some statistical data on Native communities and reasons as to why marriage matters.
This study explored how mental illness shapes transitions to marriage among unwed mothers using augmented data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. We estimated proportional hazard models to assess the effects of mental illness on the likelihood of marriage over a five year period following a non-marital birth. History of diagnosed mental illness […]
There remains a serious structural disincentive to marry for many poor Americans. The U.S. tax and transfer (welfare) systems frequently impose substantial financial penalties on low-income couples who choose to marry. In relative terms, these marriage penalties tend to be much greater than those experienced by non-poor couples, and in some cases amount to family […]
This brief is based on analyses of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study that examined how current and past participation in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program affect the likelihood and timing of marriage among mothers who had a nonmarital birth in urban areas during the late 1990s — a […]
African American boys tend to receive more support and have better outcomes-including greater self-esteem and reduced likelihood of delinquency-when they live with married parents.
In the last four decades, the United States has witnessed a retreat from marriage, marked by high rates of nonmarital births and divorce, as well as lower rates of marriage. Although a growing body of research on the retreat from marriage has focused on its social and economic causes, little attention has been paid to […]
A comprehensive review of recent academic research shows that family structure – whether a child's parents are married, divorced, single, remarried, or cohabiting – is a significant influence on children's educational performance. Family structure affects preschool readiness. It affects educational achievement at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. Family structure influences these outcomes in part […]
Kathryn Edin and Joanna Reed review recent research on social and economic barriers to marriage among the poor and discuss the efficacy of efforts by federal and state policymakers to promote marriage among poor unmarried couples, especially those with children, in light of these findings. Social barriers include marital aspirations and expectations, norms about childbearing, […]