Reducing Domestic Violence: How the Healthy Marriage Initiative Can Help
This paper addresses the concern that the Healthy Marriage Initiative would exacerbate the problem of domestic violence.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • March 30, 2004

Marriage and Welfare Reform: The Overwhelming Evidence that Marriage Education Works
This article looks at the effects of the 1996 welfare reform law to strengthen and increase the number of two-parent families in the United States.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • October 25, 2002

Increasing Marriage will Dramatically Reduce Child Poverty
Using information from the Fragile Families Study, this paper seeks to explain the relationship between marriage, economic status, and the reduction of child poverty.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • May 20, 2003

The Necessity of Marriage
This paper addresses why marriage is important for the foundation of a healthy, stable society.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • October 20, 2003

Strengthening Couples and Marriage in Low-Income Communities
This paper discusses the importance of and challenges to promoting marriage in low-income communities, with a particular focus on the situation among urban African-Americans.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Resource Center on Couples and Marriage Policy, Center for Law and Social Policy • 2002

For Richer or Poorer? Marriage as an Anti-Poverty Strategy in the United States
This paper provides a critique of policies that promote marriage as a route to economic stability for single mothers.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Center for Research on Child Wellbeing • July 01, 2003

Domestic partnerships: A response to recent proposals on civic unions
This paper argues that the State should protect the unique status of marriage because of the social benefits to children and society.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Iona Institute for Religion and Society • 2007

The State of Our Unions 2004: The Social Health of Marriage in America
This annual report from the National Marriage Project provides information on marriage, divorce, unmarried cohabitation and attitudes towards marriage in 2004.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The National Marriage Project • June 2004

The State of Our Unions 2005: The Social Health of Marriage in America
This report provides information on marriage, divorce, unmarried cohabitation, and family attitudes in America during 2005.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The National Marriage Project • July 2005

The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation
This paper discusses the cognitive, social and emotional benefits children receive growing up in a happily married two biological parent family.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Future of Children • Fall 2005

Marriage as a Public Issue
This paper examines the national marriage debate, arguing that the shifting role of marriage and family has been influenced by the development of fertility technologies which have separated childbearing from marriage.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Future of Children • Fall 2005

Depression and the Psychological Benefits of Entering Marriage
This paper argues that people who are depressed prior to entering marriage receive larger psychological gains than those who are not depressed.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• American Sociological Association • June 2007

Does Marriage Reduce Crime? A Counterfactual Approach to Within-Individual Causal Effects
This longitudinal study utilizes three data sets to estimate the causal effects of marriage on crime reduction.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• American Society of Criminology • 2006

The Effects of Marriage on Health: A Synthesis of Recent Research Evidence
This policy paper examines research on the purported positive health effects of marriage.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Mathematica Policy Research • June 19, 2007

Marriage as a Social Good: Why Get Married?
This paper argues that the institution of marriage is one of the keys to a healthy, well-functioning society because it enhances personal security, economic well-being and limits government intervention.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society • May 2007

Why Marriage Matters: Marriage, Lone Parenthood, Cohabitation, and Child Well-Being in the West
This paper examines the decline of marriage in the West and its consequences for children.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society • May 2007

Trends in Family and Household Poverty
While studies have shown single-parent homes to be a primary cause of poverty in the rest of the nation, this is not the case for California which now has one of the highest percentages of poor married families in the country.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Public Policy Institute of California • May 01, 2000

Marriage: The Safest Place for Women and Children
Using the 1999 United States findings from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), this paper finds that mothers who are single are more likely to be victims of abuse and violent crime.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • April 01, 2002

Testimony of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families U.S. Senate
In this testimony the author answers three questions: What is marriage for? What do we know about the benefits of marriage for children and adults? How does marriage benefit society? The speaker explains the benefits of marriage for men, women and children and outlines economic, educational emotional advantages that marriage provides.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The National Marriage Project • April 28, 2004

The Benefits of Marriage and Why Government Should Support It
This essay argues the state should support marriage and lays out the reasons why: improved child outcomes, improved economic and emotional outcomes for parents among them.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• American Values • 2004

How Will Welfare Reform Affect Childbearing and Family Structure Decisions?
This paper provides evidence that reforms to the welfare system have been moderately successful both in encouraging marriage and in discouraging divorce, avoidance of child support, living separately from relatives, and childbearing while unmarried or on welfare.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Institute for Research on Poverty • October 2001

Why Marriage Matters: 21 Conclusions From the Social Sciences
This paper discusses the economic, educational, psychological, health-related, and developmental benefits of marriage and the negative consequences of divorce.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Centre of the American Experiment • 2002

WHY CONGRESS SHOULD IGNORE RADICAL FEMINIST OPPOSITION TO MARRIAGE
This article provides a historical review of feminism, as well as relevant research on marriage and family, ...
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• The Heritage Foundation • June 16, 2003

Does Who You Marry Matter for Your Health? Influence of Patients’ and Spouses’ Personality on their Partners’ Psychological Well-Being Follow Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery?
This study explores the affect of personality characteristics of patients and spouses on each others’ mental adaptation and well-being before and after coronary artery bypass surgery.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology • 2006

It's All in the Past: Exploring the Repercussions of Parents' Early Conjugal and Parental Histories on the Family Life Course of their Children
This study looks at parental union status before and after the birth of a child in order to determine the likelihood of parental separation.
• Category: Marriage > Benefits of Marriage
• Human Resources and Skills Development Canada • January 01, 2002

Is a Baby a Good Reason to Marry?
This article examines the reasons which lead women and men to decide not to marry the other parent of their child.
• Category: Marriage >