National Research Studies & Evaluations

There is extensive literature relating to marriage and family. Scholars and researchers have looked at many aspects of family dynamics, couple relationships and marital satisfaction. This research has fueled the creation of many healthy marriage programs. New research and evaluation efforts have been funded by the federal government to further the field. Below, you will find information about the various research and evaluation projects funded by the federal government, including their research questions, methodology, characteristics of their sample and interventions, progress reports and findings. We also include summaries and citations of other important national-level marriage education evaluations.

How Random Assignment works
Random Assignment doesn't have all the answers
Building Strong Families
Supporting Healthy Marriages
Evaluation of ACF Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners

State and Community Studies
Other Federally-funded Research and Evaluations
Other National Studies

Federal Research Studies and Evaluations

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the main government entity that funds programs for families and children and research about families and marriage. Within DHHS, many divisions study marriage and family formation, functions and patterns and support evaluations of marriage education programs. Here is the organizational map for HHS.

The three most prominent divisions in this field are:

National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD), within the National Institute of Health (NIH)
Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services

Random Assignment Studies

Random assignment studies, or randomized control trials, are considered the gold standards in program evaluation. Random assignment studies are expensive, complex and require a good deal of planning and support. If designed and implemented well, however, they yield robust findings about whether a program had an effect or impact. These studies can make causal inferences; that is, a well implemented random assignment study can say whether marriage education actually changed something about the people who participated in it.

How Random Assignment works

How can random assignment studies prove if an intervention was successful? The methodological strength and rigor of the design comes from how people are chosen to participate in the intervention . In these studies, not everyone who calls to enroll in the class is allowed to take it. After a person expresses interest in the program, they are randomly assigned to either the treatment group, who participates in the intervention, or the control group, who is not allowed to access the service, but is usually free to find similar services elsewhere. Both groups are then given the same surveys and measured on the same concepts.

The key to this evaluation model is that participants have to be assigned randomly to either group. The groups cannot be chosen by any other method, age, race, order in contacting the site or by expressed level of need for the intervention. By keeping program participation completely based on chance, the treatment and control groups end up being (theoretically) exactly the same on all kinds of measures. The only difference between the two groups is that the treatment group received the intervention. Thus, any outcome differences, like marital satisfaction, are most likely due to participation in marriage education.

Random Assignment doesn't have all the answers

Random assignment studies don't answer every program evaluation question though. Whether the results suggest that a program did or did not work, random assignment studies can't tell you why. Was it that the curriculum was inappropriate for the client population; was it that too many people didn't complete the course; was it that the facilitators didn't connect with the participants; was it that you didn't measure another aspect of people's lives that was affected? We need to remember that while the results of a random assignment study are informative and important, one singular result needs to be balanced with replication of findings from other studies, including those that use different methodologies to study the same questions.

Building Strong Families (BSF)

Just released! Implementation of the Building Strong Families Program.
This report highlights key findings from a large-scale study of marriage education programs for unwed, expectant couples. The Building Strong Families (BSF) project included more than 5,000 couples in seven program sites (Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas). The analysis documents recruitment and enrollment practices, describes the characteristics of enrolled couples, provides data on program participation, and summarizes the experiences of couples participating in the intervention during the evaluation's first 6 to 14 months. Also includes a video with a glimpse of what couples enrolled in the BSF project say about the marriage education workshops and an overview of marriage education. M. Robin Dion, Alan M. Hershey, Heather H. Zaveri, Sarah A. Avellar, Debra A. Strong, Timothy Silman, and Ravaris Moore, January 2008, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

The Building Strong Families project is a multi-site random assignment impact evaluation of marriage education and support services for unmarried couples who are expecting a child or recently had a birth. This study is being funding by ACF's Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) and is being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research (in conjunction with MDRC, Public Strategies, Inc., The Urban Institute and Decision Information Resources, Inc.). This research was created, in part, from the findings of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, a representative survey of urban, unmarried couples who delivered a child in the late 1990s. Among other conclusions, the Child Wellbeing study indicated that many unmarried couples expressed a strong desire to marry at their child's birth, but less than 15% were legally married about a year later. The BSF project is testing an intervention designed to help unmarried parents explore their relationship options, and learn skills and tools to help them form a healthy marriage if they so desire.

BSF Questions - According to OPRE's Web site, the major research questions addressed in this study include: 1) What are the issues and challenges in designing, implementing and operating marriage education and support programs for unmarried parents? 2) What are the characteristics of couples that are interested in marriage education? 3) Does the program affect the attitudes and expectations of low-income parents regarding marriage? 4) Does the program affect marriage rates, relationship stability and on quality of relationships among parents? (5) What are the net impacts on measures of child well being (e.g., cognitive, social, emotional, health) and parental well being (e.g., emotional, health, economic)? (6) What program designs have the greatest impact on outcomes? (7) Do program effects vary for couples/families with different characteristics?

Please see the following links for more information:

Supporting Healthy Marriages (SHM)

The Supporting Healthy Marriages project is a multi-site, random assignment evaluation of marriage education programs that serve low-income married parents. This study is being funding by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE/ACF/HHS) and is being conducted by MDRC (in conjunction with Abt Associates, Inc., Child Trends, Optimal Solutions Group and McFarland and Associates, Inc.).

SHM Questions - According to OPRE's Web site, the major study questions include: (1) What are the issues and challenges in designing, implementing and operating interventions to build and sustain healthy marriages among low-income couples? (2) What approaches are taken to provide, integrate or add services to promote healthy marriages among the low-income families? What are the characteristics of the interventions and the context within which they are provided? (3) What are the characteristics of couples targeted by interventions? What are the program functions and treatment methods? What are the strategies for outreach and engagement of couples? How do differences in the target populations and their risk factors affect intervention design decisions? (4) What are the net impacts of the interventions on: marital stability and quality of relationships among couples; attitudes and expectations regarding their marriage; parenting attitudes and behaviors among couples; measures of child well-being and development (e.g., cognitive, social, emotional, health), and economic outcomes for families? (5) What are the net impacts for different sub-groups within the research sample? That is, do intervention impacts vary for couples with different characteristics?

Please see the following links for more information:

Evaluation of ACF Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners

The Office of Family Assistance funded several grants to provide marriage education to currently and formerly incarcerated men and their partners. The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has funded RTI to evaluate these innovative services. The study will consist of implementation evaluations of all 14 sites and a longitudinal, impact evaluation conducted with selected sites. Impacts of interest include marital stability, family interactions, recidivism and the family's financial situations.

State and Community Studies

In addition to random assignment studies, there are several prominent evaluations that are employing other evaluation models. The studies below represent other models of conducting evaluations including quasi-experimental models and process or implementation evaluation models.

Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) - This project intends to study how a community may benefit from becoming 'saturated' with marriage education and healthy marriage programs. ACF's Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) has contracted with RTI and the Urban Institute to select up to three cities with a large number of ACF funded grantees. They will also select comparison cities (areas of similar population size and demographics) to apply identical surveys, measures and analysis to. By employing a longitudinal comparison study, the CHMI will be able to reasonably attribute changes in the saturated communities to the influx of marriage education services. Outcome of interest include demographic change and norms that increase the support for healthy marriages.
Oklahoma Marriage Initiative Process Study (OMI) - The Assistant Secretary for Planning, Research and Evaluation (ASPE) has contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a process evaluation of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI). The OMI is the oldest and longest running statewide healthy marriage initiative. The process study will produce a series of briefs about the early years of the OMI, provide suggestions for other states attempting to develop healthy marriage initiatives, and discuss the successes and challenges faced by the OMI. The first process brief, which provides an overview of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative can be found below.

Other Federally-funded Research and Evaluations

In addition to these 'high-profile' evaluations of marriage education programs, the federal government is supporting many other evaluations of marriage education and other family programs and other research about American families and children. Please see the governmental agencies and departments below that have be instrumental in funding research to further our understanding of family functioning and effective supports for families and marriage.

National Institute for Child Health and Development (NICHD) - The National Institute for Child Health and Development is located within the National Institute of Health. The NICHD conducts and funds research on all aspects of human development so that we can better understand the lives of children, adults and families.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is located within the National Institute of Health. It''s mission is to build resilience and facilitate recovery for people with or at risk for mental or substance use disorders.
Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) - The Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation with in the Department of Health and Human Services funds a wide variety of research on marriage, families and children.
Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) - The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation funds research on the various topics and programs provided by the Administration for Children and Families. You can read about their various research and evaluation projects designed to provide information on strengthening and supporting healthy marriage and relationships.

Other National Studies

Many other researchers and organizations conduct surveys and studies that are important to increasing our understanding of family formation and functioning, child wellbeing, changing demographic patterns, adolescences and family and work life. We provide links to a selection of well-designed, national surveys below. For more information on other marriage education program evaluations, please see 'Resources for Evaluators.'