Encouraging and strengthening marriage continues to move up the US’s social policy agenda. This analysis uses nationally representative data on cohabiting couples with children from the 2002 round of the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF) to assess the actual marriage penalties or bonuses facing these couples. In addition to examining the consequences of current […]

There has been a sharp increase over the last two generations in the proportion of American children who do not live with their own two married parents, first spurred largely by increases in divorce, and more recently by large jumps in unmarried or cohabitating childbearing. A vigorous public debate sparked by these changes in family […]

At a conference cosponsored by Center of the American Experiment and the Institute for American Values in February 2002 in Washington, D.C., American Experiment president Mitch Pearlstein moderated a panel discussion on the future of the marriage movement. This article includes excerpts from the panelists’ presentations and their discussions with one another and with participants. […]

This report explores the effectiveness of initiatives to promote marriage in the United States. It begins by discussing President Bush’s Health Marriage Initiative, the support of proponents, and the criticisms of opponents. Research findings on the benefits of marriage are shared, including benefits for children and for adults. The report then explores how marriage promotion […]

Many states have introduced initiatives to support healthy marriages as a way to improve the lives of children and communities. Empirical studies indicate that children from married two-parent families face fewer barriers to success than those from single parent homes. In light of these findings, some policymakers are developing initiatives aimed at strengthening marriages. States […]

This report outlines President Bush’s Healthy Marriage Initiative. The proposed program would seek to increase healthy marriage by providing individuals and couples with: information on the value of marriage in the lives of men, women, and children; marriage-skills education that will enable couples to reduce conflict and increase the happiness and longevity of their relationship; […]

Children are increasingly born into cohabitating parent families, and past research based on children born 10 to 20 years ago suggests that children born to cohabitating parents experience greater family instability than children born to married parents. This study adds to the literature by analyzing three waves of the Fragile Families Study to examine family […]

Policymakers and researchers alike are debating whether marriage might be an antipoverty strategy for families with children. Some believe that if more parents married, there would be a substantial decrease in poverty. Others suggest that increasing the marriage rate among poor and near-poor parents, while not dramatically reducing poverty, would make a significant dent in […]