Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania conducted this study on the recent trends on marriage stability in the United States. While recent data offers conflicting evidence, authors review data, and conclude that marital stability has increased among married couples since the mid-late 1970s.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation funded this report, which synthesizes and evaluates the literature on adolescent romantic relationships, with emphasis on how these relationships are precursors of adult marriages. The goal of the report is to provide a foundation for policies to promote healthy marriages through programs targeted to adolescents.

The number of children born to unmarried parents has been steadily increasing. In 2005, 37 percent of children were born to unmarried parents. Responding to these trends, the Federal government implemented the Healthy Marriage Initiative. This brief, from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, provides information on the relationship dynamics of unmarried couples who recently had a child, which is the target population form many healthy marriage programs.

The African American Healthy Marriage Initiative is a component of the ACF Healthy Marriage Initiative and promotes a culturally competent strategy for fostering healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, improving child well-being, and strengthening families within the African American Community. This newsletter is from the African American Healthy Marriage Initiative for the month of May. It provides information on Black Marriage Day and an overview of events from the month of March.

This report from the Office of Research, Planning, and Evaluation provides a conceptual framework for healthy marriage education intervention with low-income married step-couples based on research and practice lessons. Authors provide background data on divorce and remarriage, information on the characteristics of stepfamilies and trends in stepfamily prevalence, research findings on stepfamily dynamics, the quality of relationships among stepfamily couples and outcomes for children, and information learned from practitioners.

Isabel Sawhill, of the Brookings Institution, testified before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss poverty reduction strategies. She cited three priorities to alleviate poverty in the United States: expanding early childhood education, reducing teen pregnancy and early, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and encouraging work.

The Institute for Research on Poverty authored this discussion paper on the impact of policies, such as child support orders, divorce policies, custody regulations, on the wellbeing of children and families. Authors use information on the marital status of parents to assess how children are affected by a change in status.

This Fragile Families Brief, from the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University, focuses on how fathers’ risk factors are related to father involvement and relationship status among unmarried couples. Risk factors identified include physical abuse, substance abuse, and incarceration. Authors use qualitative and quantitative data on these risk factors to examine child involvement and the relationships among unmarried couples.

From the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, this research brief provides an overview of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative. Since 1999, Oklahoma's Initiative has been in place and successful due to the large public and private collaboration in the State. This brief is the first in a series to define promising strategies from Oklahoma.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this article highlights effective programs, policy opportunities, and other strategies to improve educational outcomes for children. This brief is to inform policymakers and other stakeholders on strategies to promote the healthy educational development of children.