What Policymakers Should Know

There is a high cost to taxpayers when couples divorce, or marriages fail to form. 1

  • The government cost to taxpayers is an estimated $112 billion per year due to expenditures for social programs (e.g., food stamps, child support collections, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, criminal justice programs) that support children when parents divorce, or if parents never marry. Reducing family fragmentation by as little as 1 percent could yield a savings of nearly $1 billion annually.
  • Children who grow up in households without both of their biological parents are at higher risk for being in poverty, becoming pregnant at an early age, becoming involved with the criminal justice system, and becoming a single parent, or divorced parent themselves.

Marriage education teaches skills and techniques for healthy relationships.

  • Efforts to strengthen marriage focus on working with couples who choose marriage for themselves.
  • Marriage skills and techniques are oftentimes called "marriage education" or "marriage preparation" and are offered through workshops, seminars and meetings. See a list of healthy marriage-related curricula.
  • Couples that divorce have little ability to solve problems and manage conflict together.
  • Marriage education can be taught in a group setting, which is cost effective.
  • Relationship skills are transferable to other aspects of healthy living.
  • Marriage education activities address small issues or problems before they grow to threaten a marriage.

Strengthening Marriage is not about forcing people to get married or stay in bad, or abusive marriages. 2

  • Strengthening marriage is not marriage at all costs or "marriage for the sake of marriage."
  • Domestic violence and other forms of abuse do not comprise a healthy marriage and should not be tolerated.

Policymakers have a role to play in supporting healthy marriage as a public policy priority.

Marriage makes a difference–it produces tangible benefits for children, their parents and communities. 3

  • Children raised by their parents in married households are at reduced risk for child abuse, poverty, poor health, suicide, and psychological distress.
  • Both married men and women experience better health, lower rates of serious illness, and longer life expectancy than those who are divorced.

Investing in healthy marriages does not mean subtracting resources from programs or services that target single-parent families, or about diminishing the role of single parents. 4

  • Policymakers can continue to support programs that help single parent families—including an increased effort on helping single parents work together to raise their children, even if they decide not to marry.
  • Supporting healthy marriage should not convey either directly or indirectly that single parent households are less-equipped than married couples to raise their children, but rather make available the needed resources to ensure positive outcomes for children in two-parent households.

Supporting healthy marriage initiatives is a tool, but not a silver bullet. 5

  • Healthy marriage is not an immediate solution to lift low-income families out of poverty, but is a stabilizing factor that, over time, can yield positive benefits like economic security.
  • Healthy marriage efforts can increase child and family well-being, but is not the sole solution to address the stability of families.

Limiting access to divorce is not the same thing as supporting healthy marriage.

  • Marriage strengthening efforts focus on building skills and developing healthy relationships before problems arise, they are not about making divorce harder to obtain.
  • Public policy can both provide for the option of divorce and create access to resources to help couples maintain their marriage.

There are tangible ways that policymakers can support healthy marriages.

  • Expanding the availability of marriage education in your community helps ensure that couples who choose marriage have access to the support they need to maintain a healthy marriage.
  • Consider how incentives, such as reducing or eliminating marriage license fees, can encourage couples to access marriage education.
  • Create a coalition, commission, or task force charged with 1) identifying ways to support healthy marriage at the local level and 2) identifying the systemic changes needed to eliminate barriers to couples maintaining healthy marriage.
  • See sample Federal, State, and local policies, implementation tools, and related resources.

1 The Taxpayer Cost of Divorce: The First Ever Estimate for the Nation and All 50 States, Institute for American Values, 2008, p5. Back
2 Mission Statement, Healthy Marriage Initiative, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Back
3 Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences, Institute for American Values, 2005 Back
4 Healthy Marriage Initiative, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. Back
5 Ibid. Back