“Marriage is the Strongest Factor in Reducing Child Poverty
in the U.S”
“Children in married families are 82 percent less likely to
be poor than are children of single parents.”
“Children raised in
intact families have, on average, higher academic achievement, better emotional
health, and fewer behavioral problems.”
“Adolescents from
intact families are less likely to become sexually active.”
“Children raised in
intact families are more likely to have stable and healthy romantic
relationships as adults.”
“Intact families are
more likely to provide a safe home for children. Compared to peers in intact
families, children in other family structures experienced significantly higher
rates of exposure to domestic violence.”
“Married mothers
tend to create a better home environment for their infants. Married mothers
also tended to interact more positively with their infants compared to
cohabiting or single mothers.”
“Married fathers
tend to have better psychological well-being. Divorced fathers were, on
average, more depressed than their married counterparts, whether or not their
children resided with them.”
“Less than half (46%) of U.S. kids younger than 18 years of
age are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first
marriage.” (In other words, less than
half of the children in this country are experiencing the benefits from intact
marriages listed above)
Popenoe, D. (1996). Life Without a Father, p. 96. New York:
The Free Press.
“The burden of social science evidence supports the idea
that gender differentiated parenting is important for human development and
that the contribution f fathers to childbearing is unique and irreplaceable…
…The complementarity of male and female parenting styles is
striking and of enormous importance to a child’s overall development. It is
sometimes said that fathers express more concern for the child’s longer-term
development, while mothers focus on the child’s immediate well-being (which, of
course, in its own way has everything to do with a child’s long-term
well-being).” –David Popenoe
The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (13 August 2008). The Divine Institution of
Marriage. Salt Lake City, UT.
“When a man and a woman marry with the intent of forming a
new family, their success in that endeavor depends on their willingness to
renounce the single-minded pursuit of self-fullfilment and to sacrifice their
time and means to the nurturing and rearing of their children. Marriage is a
fundamentally unselfish act: legally protected because only a male and female
together can create new life, and because the rearing of children requires a
life-long commitment, which marriage is intended to provide.”
Amato, P. R., &
Booth, A. (1997). A generation at risk: Growing up in an era of family upheaval.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
“Those who think of
marriage as a permanent, life-long relationship despite times of hardship may
work harder at improving a marriage and individual happiness, because they
believe that divorce is not an option”
Blumstein, P., &
Schwartz, P. (1983). American couples: Money, work, and sex. New York: William
Morrow.
“Spouses who did not
believe marriage should last forever (in other words, they defined marriage as
a less than permanent relationship) were less likely to pool their money and
were more likely to have extramarital affairs.”
Amato, P. and
Cheadle, J. (February 2005). The Long Reach of Divorce: Divorce and Child
Well-Being Across Three Generations. The
Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 67, No. 1. Blackwell Publishing
Limited.
“Compared with adults
with continuously married parents, adults with divorced parents tend to obtain
less education, earn less income, have more troubled marriages, have weaker
ties with parents, and report more symptoms of psychological distress.”
“Spouses who later divorce (compared with spouses who remain
married) listen to their partners less attentively, express more negative
emotion in marital conversations, are more critical of their partners, are more
likely to respond to criticism defensively, avoid or withdraw from
problem-solving discussions, and report more problems with jealousy, moodiness,
and controlling anger.”
“Living with stably married parents is associated with the
highest premium in cognitive scores and the lowest level of behavioural
problems among five-year-old children.”
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