This brief reviews research on the positive outcomes of marriage compared to alternative household arrangements. Cited data indicates: adolescents in intact families are the least likely to feel depressed compared to those with divorced, step-, cohabiting, or single parents; the national average grade-point scores of children in intact families is 2.98, compared to 2.79 for […]

This article presents the challenges and successes of a university-based empowerment evaluation team as they promoted community-based organizational (CBO) self-evaluation skills through a large community capacity building effort funded by a community foundation. Using a reflective inquiry approach, the team’s approach to empowerment evaluation is discussed, and the how’s, the why’s, and the outcomes of […]

This brief discusses the decline of marriage in American society, the benefits of marriage, and strategies for strengthening the institution of marriage in the United States. It begins with a review of statistics that indicate a decrease in the marriage rate, an increase in the cohabitation rate, and a high unwed birthrate among women ages […]

In the late 1990s, Oklahoma undertook an innovative strategy to strengthen families by reducing its divorce and nonmarital childbearing rates. With leadership and commitment from the highest levels, the state set out to build public support and develop a sustainable multisector initiative through a public-private collaboration. Since then, the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI) has focused […]

The probability of divorce in the U.S. has remained constant for the last two decades at about half of all marriages. While this estimate is well established, and marked differentials in divorce rates are well known, there are no reliable estimates of differences in the lifetime probability of divorce. Using data from the 1990 June […]

This brief is based on extensive in-person observational data, as well as survey data, from 55 unmarried low-income African-American mothers and fathers who were part of the Fragile Families study. Given that 70 percent of African-American children (compared with one-third of all children) in the U.S. are born to parents who are not married, this […]

Policy makers propose to promote healthy marriage among low-income unmarried couples by providing services to improve relationship skills. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to explore whether enhancing parents’ relationship skills may have spillover effects on parent-child relationships. Drawing on findings that relationship quality is positively associated with parenting […]

This is the ninth publication in CLASP’s Couples and Marriage policy brief series. It explores the attitudinal, experiential, economic, and social contexts in which disadvantaged parents have children and decide to marry or not marry. It also discusses the public policy implications of research on this topic. Like others in the series, this brief is […]

This study examines the effects of changes in family structure on children’s economic well-being. An initial shift-share analysis indicates that, had the proportion of children living in female-headed families remained constant since 1970, the 1998 child poverty rate would have been 4.4 percentage points lower than its actual 1998 level of 18.3 percent. We then […]

The federally-funded Healthy Marriage & Family Formation Project enhances the capacity of child welfare professionals and community service providers capacity to address healthy marriage and family formation issues as a way of improving safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children and families in Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. The project is also working to identify and […]