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 […]

Many women who have experienced domestic violence are also involved with the child protection system (CPS). Most are poor, and a disproportionate number are women of color, both immigrant and U.S. born. Being involved with CPS can be frightening, overwhelming and confusing for them. This guidebook is intended for advocates working with women involved with […]

As the Bush Administration’s “”compassionate conservatism”” agenda evolves simultaneous to debate on key legislation impacting families, there has been widespread debate and promotion of the Healthy Marriage Initiative. Marriage promotion initiatives and commissions on marriage are forming across the country as legislation such as the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Act, Child Support Enforcement Act, […]

This paper reports findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine union formation among unmarried parents who have just had a child together. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of economic, cultural/interpersonal, and other factors on whether parents are romantically involved living apart, cohabitating, married to each other, or […]

A considerable number of contemporary Americans have deep reservations about their prospects for marriage, the quality of a marriage they might enter, and the odds that their marriage will last. Some even raise concerns that marriage can be a trap and can expose women to domestic violence. Despite these divergent views and concerns, there is […]

To investigate the family support needs of Iowa citizens, the Iowa Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Supports Advisory Group conducted 25 focus groups involving over 250 adults. This resulting report discusses themes that were prevalent during these focus groups and presents the following recommendations for family support services: (1) lift up the importance of the family; […]

With the enactment of welfare reform in 1996, encouraging and supporting marriage became priorities for the federal government and the states. Research findings that children in married families generally fare better than those in single-parent families on measures of poverty, hardship, and well-being have provided the rationale for marriage promotion policies. In this brief, we […]

Recent federal welfare reform initiatives contain provisions intended to strengthen marriage and family structures. Three of the four objectives of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program as enacted in 1996 address family issues: assistance to needy families so that children can live with their parents or other relatives; prevention of out-of-wedlock pregnancies in the […]

This paper examines the ways in which families with children have changed over the course of the twentieth century in the United States and the rise of single-parent families. It begins with a discussion of the negative effects of single parenthood and findings from research on the economic and developmental disadvantages of children raised in […]