Why Marriage Matters: Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Sciences

Sixteen of the top scholars on family life have re-issured a joint report on the importance of marriage. First released in 2002, the newly revised edition of Why Marriage Matters highlights five new themes in marriage-related research. Since 1960, the proportion of children who do not live with their own two parents has risen sharply. This change has been caused, first, by large increases in divorce, and more recently, by a big jump in single mothers and cohabitating couples who have children but do not marry. For several decades the impact of this dramatic change in family structure has been the subject of vigorous debate among scholars. No longer. These twenty six findings are now widely agreed upon.