The percent of men and women who have ever married in the United States increases steadily with age. In other words, a smaller number of 20- to 24-year-olds than 40- to 49-year-olds have ever been married. By the time they reach their 70s, nearly 100% of Americans today have been married at some point in […]
Marriage will be an important issue in the upcoming debate over the reauthorization of welfare reform. According to recent studies, both children and adults benefit from marriage. Still, one of three children in the U.S. is born to unmarried parents. At the time of birth, most unmarried parents are committed to each other and to […]
Fact sheet from the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center outlining the trend in birth rates for unmarried women from 1975 to present.
This is the seventh publication in the Couples and Marriage research and policy brief series. It explores how the healthy marriage, responsible fatherhood, and domestic violence communities can work together to promote the well-being of families and children. The brief explains some of the barriers to building bridges between the three communities, and it suggests […]
This study addresses four sets of related questions: (1) What are the conditions and capabilities of new unmarried parents, especially fathers? How many of these men hold steady jobs? How many want to be involved in raising their children? (2) What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents? How many of these couples […]
This report discusses the findings of a comprehensive review of scholarly articles, reports, and books on the consequences of marriage for African Americans published from 1990 through 2004. In addition, new research was conducted using survey data collected from 1973 through 2002 by the American General Social Surveys. Ten key findings from the review and […]
Using recently released data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, this Research Brief presents a portrait of multiple-partner fertility among men aged 15-44 living in the United States. The brief also examines the types of relationships within which multiple-partner fertility occurs and the links between the characteristics of fathers and multiple-partner fertility. The […]
The implications of family structure for children have been a central focus of public policy and research for decades. This brief highlights trends in family structure for children in the United States over the last few decades and reviews the research evidence on the effects of family structure on children. Research tells us that children […]
In recent years, strengthening marriages and relationships in low-income families has emerged as a national policy strategy to enhance child well-being. Mathematica recently conducted a study of how programs and services to strengthen relationships in unmarried parent families can be developed, implemented, and evaluated. The study culminated in a conceptual framework that identifies factors to […]