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Research Resources

In our efforts to help you stay on top of the ever-growing and changing marriage and family research field, the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center has put together a series of research-related resources. This section of the Web site contains research fact sheets that provide a clear and simplified breakdown of a specific marriage related issue or topic. Research syntheses analyze a body of research around a topic or issue, identify consistent findings and indicate important gaps in the current state of knowledge. Finally, the NHMRC's "Top Ten" is an annual publication that summarizes the most influential works on marriage and family that were published in the previous year, and includes both peer-reviewed works and more popular non-academic pieces.

Marriage Fact Sheets

At the NHMRC, we realize it can be challenging to keep up with the many statistics from marriage and family research. Assessing the quality of this information can prove even more difficult, as sometimes the statistics may not paint a complete or wholly accurate picture of the data or trends. Over time this page will grow to include overviews of important trends on topics or issues related to marriage in the United States, including trends in non-marital birth rates and attitudes on cohabitation.

• Living Arrangements of Children in the United States over Time (PDF - 116 KB)
• Trends in Nonmarital Birth Rates (PDF - 109 KB)
• Trends in Median Age at First Marriage (PDF - 92 KB)
• Trends in Percent Ever Married by Age and Race/Ethnicity (PDF - 139 KB)
• Trends in Marriage Rate (PDF - 82 KB)
• Attitudes toward Marriage (PDF - 107 KB)
• Attitudes toward Cohabitation (PDF - 106 KB)

Research into Practice

As the body of knowledge on marriage and family in the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years, so to has the need to "translate" research findings into concrete implications for programmatic and policy practice. The resources below provide more insight into what policymakers and practitioners are doing to bridge the gap between research and practice.

• Presentations and Papers from the African American Healthy Marriage Initiative's "Connecting Marriage Research into Practice" Conference- September 2007

Articles and Key Documents Summaries

At the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, we strive to keep you informed. Below are summaries of documents and articles from journals and other sources. If you are looking for more in-depth information than what is provided below, please visit our Recent Research and Research by Topic sections of the site.

• NHMRC Bibliography (PDF - 282 KB)
• NHMRC Marriage Later in Life Bibliography (PDF - 105 KB)
• NHMRC Military Service and Marriage Bibliography (PDF - 79 KB)