The Building Strong Families (BSF) project aims to foster the development of programs designed to enhance children's well being by helping new, unmarried parents build stronger relationships and achieve a healthy marriage if they so choose. The motivation and design of BSF programs draw heavily on findings about unmarried parents from the Fragile Families and […]
In response to the congressional mandate to promote two-parent families and marriage specified in the 1996 welfare reform legislation, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services embarked on an initiative to encourage healthy marriage in the broad population and especially within low-income groups. To support further […]
Developed by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), this technical assistance module explains how to form coalitions to support Community Healthy Marriage Initiatives (CHMI) designed to strengthen marriages and improve child well-being. The CHMI conceptual model involves combining the efforts of public and private social service agencies to inform couples and parents about resources […]
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 […]
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 […]