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 Why Marriage Matters
Twenty-One Conclusions from the Social Sciences
From the Introduction
WHAT DO we know about the importance of marriage for children, for adults and for society? There has been a sharp increase over the last two generations
in the proportion of American children who do not live with their own two married parents, spurred first largely by increases in divorce, and more
recently by large jumps in unmarried or cohabiting childbearing. A vigorous public debate sparked by these changes in family structure has generated a growing body of social science literature on
the consequences of family fragmentation.
This report is an attempt to summarize this large body of scientific research into a succinct form useful to Americans on all sides of ongoing family debates - to report what we know about the
importance of marriage in our family and social system.
Marriage in America has changed a great deal over the past two generations, including increased incidence and social acceptance of divorce, cohabitation, premarital sex, and unwed childbearing.
Other important changes include dramatic increases in the proportion of working wives, reduced tolerance for domestic violence, and a change in gender roles. Over the past 40 years, both men
and women have become increasingly likely to support greater participation by men in the household and women in the labor force, and less sharp differentiation between women's and
men's roles. Yet when it comes to the benefits of marriage, research shows more impressive evidence of continuity than change or decline.
Social science is better equipped to document whether certain social facts are true than to say why they are true. We can assert more definitively that marriage is associated with powerful social
goods than that marriage is the sole or main cause of these goods.
Good research seeks to tease out what scholars call "selection effects," or the pre-existing differences between individuals who decide to divorce, marry, or become unwed parents. Does
divorce cause poverty, for example, or is it simply that poor people are more likely to divorce? Good social science attempts to distinguish between causal relationships and mere correlations in
a variety of ways. The studies cited here are for the most part based on large, nationally representative samples that control for race, family background, and other confounding factors. In
many, but not all cases, social scientists have been able to use longitudinal data to track individuals as they marry, divorce or stay single, increasing our confidence that marriage itself matters. Where
the evidence is, in our view, overwhelming that marriage causes increases in well-being, we say so. Where marriage probably does so but the causal pathways are not as well understood, we are more cautious.
We recognize that, absent random assignment to marriage, divorce or single parenting, social scientists must always acknowledge the possibility that other factors are influencing outcomes.
(For example, relatively few family-structure studies attempt to assess the role of genetics.) Reasonable scholars may and do disagree on the existence and extent of such selection effects
and the extent to which marriage is causally related to the better social outcomes reported here.
And of course individual circumstances vary.[1] While divorce is associated with serious
increased psychological risks for children, for example, the majority of children of divorce are not mentally ill.[2] While marriage is a social good, not all marriages are equal. Research does not
generally support the idea that remarriage is better for children than living with a single mother.[3]
Marriages that are unhappy do not have the same benefits as the average marriage.[4] Divorce or
separation provides an important escape hatch for children and adults in violent or high-conflict marriages. Families, communities, and policy makers interested in distributing the benefits of
marriage more equally must do more than merely discourage legal divorce.
Social science is typically better equipped to answer general questions (Are high rates of divorce and unwed childbearing likely to reduce overall child well-being?) than to answer questions facing
individual parents (Will my particular children in my particular circumstances be harmed or helped by divorce?).
But we believe good social science, despite its inherent limitations, is a better guide to social policy than uninformed opinion or prejudice. The public and policy makers deserve to hear what
research suggests about the consequences of marriage and its absence for children and adults. This report represents our best judgment of what the current social science evidence reveals about
the importance of marriage in our social system.
Here is our fundamental conclusion: Marriage is an important social good, associated with an impressively broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike.
Family structure and processes are of course only one factor contributing to child and social well-being. Our discussion here is not meant to minimize the importance of other social and
economic factors, such as poverty, child support, unemployment, neighborhood safety, or the quality of education for both parents and children.
But whether American society succeeds or fails in building a healthy marriage culture is clearly a matter of legitimate public concern.
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