09 Jan
  • By timcooper
  • Cause in

Designing a Marriage Education Demonstration and Evaluation for Low-Income Married Couples

In recent decades, there has been a widening gap between higher rates of marital instability for economically disadvantaged couples and lower rates for nondisadvantaged couples. In addition, out-of-wedlock birth rates have risen, while evidence has grown that children fare better, on average, when raised by both of their parents in stable low-conflict households. All of […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Marriage and Health Care Coverage Among Families with Children

This research brief describes rates of health care coverage for married- and single-parent families with children under age 18, a key target population of both marriage and health care coverage initiatives. Drawing on nationally representative data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), the brief reports differences in rates of health care coverage by marital status […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Recruiting Expectant Couples

New parents make a lot of preparations when a baby is on the way. Some of the things couples have to consider are where the baby will sleep and who will stay home with the baby. With these and other preparations, many couples don't prepare for the change that the baby will have on their […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Welfare Reform : More Research Needed on TANF Family Caps and Other Policies for Reducing Out-of-Wedlock Births

In an effort to reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies among welfare recipients, some states have imposed family caps on welfare benefits. One factor that determines the amount of cash benefits a family receives is the family’s size-larger families receive more benefits. In states with a family cap policy, however, no additional cash benefits are […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Meeting the Needs of Married, Low-income Stepfamily Couples in Marriage Education Services: Final Report

Existing evidence suggests that many married couples in the U.S. are managing stepfamily relationships. Empirical studies of stepfamily dynamics highlight the unique factors inherent in stepfamily marriages that impact their quality and stability, most notably the complexity of multiple relationships that exist at the onset of the marriage. Additional research on low-income populations suggests that […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Family Matters : Family Structure and Child Outcomes

Research has consistently shown that family structure can facilitate or limit the ways in which parents are able to positively influence the future outcomes of their children. What is less understood is in what domains family structure matters and the magnitude of its effects over time. This paper presents existing evidence on the association between […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Racial-Ethnic and Gender Differences in Returns to Cohabitation and Marriage : Evidence From the Current Population Study

A large body of research documents the earnings advantage that married men enjoy over never-married men, the “marriage premium.” Marital status is now a control variable in most earnings models, despite disagreements in the literature over whether the source of marital-status effects lies in productivity, selection, discrimination or other factors (Cornwell & Rupert 1997). Some […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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How do marriage, cohabitation, and single parenthood affect the material hardships of families with children?

This paper examines the effect of marital and family status on the experience of material hardship, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Among the key indicators of hardship are the ability to meet essential expenses, housing conditions, neighborhood problems (including crime, schools, public services), and having enough resources to buy […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Married and unmarried parenthood and economic well-being : a dynamic analysis of a recent cohort

This paper examines the dynamics of marriage and family patterns and their relationship to living standards of a recent cohort of mothers. It is not obvious that married mothers should perform economically better than mothers in cohabitingrelationships or single mothers living with at least one other adult. But marriage is likely to raise living standards […]

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09 Jan
  • By timcooper
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Indicators of Marriage and Fertility in the United States From the American Community Survey : 2000 to 2003

This paper highlights the benefits of using the American Community Survey (ACS) including the ability to analyze data at the state and national levels, as well as explore the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and changing family structure. The following family structure variables are explored in the paper: estimated median age at first marriage, married and […]

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