Research on many aspects of family dynamics, couple relationships, and marital satisfaction has fueled the creation of many healthy marriage programs. Below is information about recent, national-level research and evaluations.

• NHMRC Sponsored Research
• Program Evaluation
• National Marriage and Divorce Statistics
• Research and Data Resources
   

NHMRC Sponsored Research

• What Twenty-Somethings Think About Marriage, provides further evidence that most young people aspire to marry, regardless of current relationship or level of commitment, and that expectations for marriage success are remarkably high. TwoOfUs.org builds on this research. It is designed to get people talking about the complexity of healthy marriages and provide tools, resources, and tips for making relationships work.
• What Works in Marriage and Relationship Education? This Report reviews and synthesizes the lessons emerging from evaluation research and practitioner experience to address two related questions: (a) What have we learned about the design and implementation of government-sponsored MRE programs? and (b) What do we know about the effects of these programs on participants, especially low-income populations?
   

Program Evaluation

Reports of the most rigorously designed marriage and relationship education programs, including recent randomized controlled trials. Random assignment studies, or randomized control trials, are the gold standard in program evaluation. A well-implemented, random assignment study can say whether marriage education actually changed something about the people who participated in it.

• Designing a Marriage Education Demonstration and Evaluation for Low-Income Married Couples
• Early Lessons from the Implementation of a Relationship and Marriage Skills
• Evaluation of ACF Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners
• Initial Implementation of a Couples-Focused Employment Program
• Implementation of Eight Programs to Strengthen Unmarried Parent Families

Recent Random Assignment Studies:

• 15-Month Impacts of Oklahoma's Family Expectations Program
• The Building Strong Families Program
• Supporting Healthy Marriages (SHM) Also see Supporting Healthy Marriages Toolkit: Resources for Program Operators from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Demonstration and Evaluation
   

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National Marriage and Divorce Statistics

• American FactFinder (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• Adolescent Romantic Relationships as Precursors of Healthy Adult Marriages
• The American Community Survey
• Decennial Census
• The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
• Marital Events of Americans: 2009 – An American Community Survey Report, U.S. Census Bureau
• The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)
• National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979
• National Survey of America’s Families
• National Survey of Families and Households
• National Survey of Family Growth – These include:
  • National Marriage Project (University of Virginia): Provides research and analysis on the state of marriage in America. A section of the annual State of Our Unions tracks social indicators.
  • Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute
  • Princeton University Office of Population Research
  • University of Maryland Population Research Center
  • Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
• The National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey
• The Decline of Marriage (Pew Research Center)
• Survey of Income and Program Participation
• Trends in Marital Stability

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Research and Data Resources

• Center for Research on Child Wellbeing (Princeton University)
• Child Trends’ Data Bank: Family Structure
• Council on Contemporary Families
• Family Facts (The Heritage Foundation)
• Family Focus On… Divorce and Relationship Dissolution
• The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
• Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
• Marital Status and Living Arrangements Data (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
• The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
• The National Center for Children in Poverty’s Searchable 50 State Demographic Tool.
• National Center for Health Statistics
• National Center for Family and Marriage Research (Bowling Green State University)
• Pew Social and Demographic Trends
• The Williams Institute (UCLA)

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