On March 15, 2005, the Human Resources Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives marked up the “”Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005″” (H.R. 240). The bill was then referred to the full committee. On March 17, the Senate Finance Committee marked up the “”Personal Responsibility and […]

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to explore how relationship quality among married and unmarried parents around the time of their baby’s birth and in the subsequent year is associated with parenting of one-year-old children. We examine two measures of relationship quality (supportiveness and frequency of conflict) and two domains […]

Family structure changed rapidly in the second half of the 20th century, with two-parent families increasingly replaced by other family forms. Divorce is common, one-third of all births occur out of wedlock, and cohabiting couples are widespread. The decline of marriage has been particularly evident in poor communities. In this societal context, three of the […]

This special issue focuses on the increasing disconnect between parenthood and marriage and how to make marriage more child centered. It begins by discussing the three levels of decline of the child centered marriage, including the weakening link between marriage and parenthood and the growing acceptance of unwed parenthood, the shift away from children within […]

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 […]

Findings from social science research and marriage education are cited in this report to examine the government’s role in supporting healthy marriages for the benefit of children. The analysis considers reasons for public policies that address marriage issues and the elements of effective marriage policy. Studies have indicated that law and public policies about marriage […]