National Research Studies

Research on many aspects of family dynamics, couple relationships, and marital satisfaction has fueled the creation of many healthy marriage programs. Below is information about recent, national-level research and evaluations.

Random Assignment Studies

Random assignment studies, or randomized control trials, are the gold standard in program evaluation. Random assignment studies are expensive, complex, and require significant planning and support. If designed and implemented well, they yield robust findings about whether a program had an effect or impact. A well-implemented, random assignment study can say whether marriage education actually changed something about the people who participated in it.

How Random Assignment Studies Work

The methodological strength and rigor of the design comes from how people are chosen to participate in the intervention. In these studies, not everyone who calls to enroll in the class is allowed to take it. After a person expresses interest in the program, they are randomly assigned to either the treatment group, who participates in the intervention, or the control group, who is not allowed to access the service, but is usually free to find similar services elsewhere. Both groups are then given the same surveys and measured on the same concepts.

The key to this evaluation model is that participants have to be assigned randomly to either group. The groups cannot be chosen by any other method, age, race, order in contacting the site or by expressed level of need for the intervention. By keeping program participation completely based on chance, the treatment and control groups end up being (theoretically) exactly the same on all kinds of measures. The only difference between the two groups is that the treatment group received the intervention. Thus, any outcome differences, like marital satisfaction, are most likely due to participation in marriage education.

Random assignment studies don't answer every program evaluation question though. Whether the results suggest that a program did or did not work, random assignment studies can't tell you why. Was it that the curriculum was inappropriate for the client population; was it that too many people didn't complete the course; was it that the facilitators didn't connect with the participants; was it that you didn't measure another aspect of people's lives that was affected? While results of random assignment studies are informative and important, they need to be balanced with replication of findings from other studies.

Recent Random Assignment Studies

The Building Strong Families Program
A multi-site random assignment impact evaluation of marriage education and support services for unmarried couples who are expecting a child or recently had a birth. This study is being funding by ACF's Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) and is being conducted by Mathematica Policy Research (in conjunction with MDRC, Public Strategies, Inc., The Urban Institute and Decision Information Resources, Inc.).

The Building Strong Families (BSF) project included more than 5,000 couples in seven program sites (Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas). The analysis documents recruitment and enrollment practices, describes the characteristics of enrolled couples, provides data on program participation, and summarizes the experiences of couples participating in the intervention during the evaluation's first 6 to 14 months. Also includes a video with a glimpse of what couples enrolled in the BSF project say about the marriage education workshops and an overview of marriage education. M. Robin Dion, Alan M. Hershey, Heather H. Zaveri, Sarah A. Avellar, Debra A. Strong, Timothy Silman, and Ravaris Moore, January 2008, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. For more information:

  • Implementation of the Building Strong Families Program (PDF - 736 KB): A 2008 report highlighting key findings from an implementation analysis of BSF’s seven program sites during the evaluation's first 6 to 14 months.
  • Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs: Early Lessons (PDF - 491 KB): A 2006 report documenting early lessons from pilot demonstration sites from early 2005 to early 2006. The report shows that unwed parents in the program are interested in marriage education programs that will help them build the necessary skills to form and sustain a healthy marriage. It also indicates that, overall, couples responded positively to the programs and valued the group format and learning from other couples' experiences.

Supporting Healthy Marriages (SHM)
A multi-site, random assignment evaluation of marriage education programs that serve low-income married parents. This study is being funding by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE/ACF/HHS) and is being conducted by MDRC (in conjunction with Abt Associates, Inc., Child Trends, Optimal Solutions Group and McFarland and Associates, Inc.).

Major study questions include:

  • What are the issues and challenges in designing, implementing and operating interventions to build and sustain healthy marriages among low-income couples?
  • What approaches are taken to provide, integrate or add services to promote healthy marriages among the low-income families? What are the characteristics of the interventions and the context within which they are provided?
  • What are the characteristics of couples targeted by interventions? What are the program functions and treatment methods? What are the strategies for outreach and engagement of couples? How do differences in the target populations and their risk factors affect intervention design decisions?
  • What are the net impacts of the interventions on: marital stability and quality of relationships among couples; attitudes and expectations regarding their marriage; parenting attitudes and behaviors among couples; measures of child well-being and development (e.g., cognitive, social, emotional, health), and economic outcomes for families?
  • What are the net impacts for different sub-groups within the research sample? That is, do intervention impacts vary for couples with different characteristics?

For more information:

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Other National Research Studies

Evaluation of ACF Responsible Fatherhood, Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Re-entering Fathers and their Partners
The Office of Family Assistance funded several grants to provide marriage education to currently and formerly incarcerated men and their partners. The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has funded RTI to evaluate these innovative services. The study will consist of implementation evaluations of all 14 sites and a longitudinal, impact evaluation conducted with selected sites. Impacts of interest include marital stability, family interactions, recidivism and the family's financial situations.

The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
This study addresses four sets of related questions:

  • What are the conditions and capabilities of new unmarried parents, especially fathers? How many of these men hold steady jobs? How many want to be involved in raising their children?
  • What is the nature of the relationships between unmarried parents? How many of these couples are involved in stable relationships? What proportion expects to marry? What proportion is exposed to high levels of conflict or domestic violence?
  • What factors push new unmarried parents together? What factors pull them apart? In particular, how do public policies affect parents? behaviors and living arrangements?
  • What are the long-term consequences for parents, children, and society of new welfare regulations, stronger paternity establishment and stricter child support enforcement, and changes in healthcare and childcare financing and delivery?

To answer these questions, the study follows families from the birth of the child through age four. New mothers are interviewed in person at the hospital within 48 hours of giving birth. Fathers are interviewed either at the hospital or someplace else as soon as possible after the birth. Three follow-up interviews will be conducted when the children are 12, 30, and 48 months old, including in-home child assessments at 30 and 48 months. The full sample will be representative of all nonmarital births in the U.S. to parents residing in cities with populations over 200,000. Also, the data are representative of non-marital births within each of the cities that comprise our sample. A comparison group of married parents also will be followed in each city.

The National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey
The National Data Program for the Social Sciences (General Social Survey) is both a data diffusion project and a program of social indicator research. Its data collection instrument, the General Social Survey (GSS), was fielded for the 27th time in 2008. The questionnaire contains a standard core of demographic and attitudinal variables, plus certain topics of special interest selected for rotation (called "topical modules").

The basic purposes of the GSS are to gather data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes; to examine the structure and functioning of society in general as well as the role played by relevant subgroups; to compare the United States to other societies in order to place American society in comparative perspective and develop cross-national models of human society; and to make high-quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, policy makers, and others, with minimal cost and waiting. Since 1988, the GSS has also collected data on number of sex partners, frequency of intercourse, extramarital relationships, and sex with prostitutes.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health)
A longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The Add Health cohort has been followed into young adulthood with four in-home interviews, the most recent in 2008, when the sample was aged 24-32. Add Health combines longitudinal survey data on respondents’ social, economic, psychological and physical well-being with contextual data on the family, neighborhood, community, school, friendships, peer groups, and romantic relationships, providing unique opportunities to study how social environments and behaviors in adolescence are linked to health and achievement outcomes in young adulthood. The fourth wave of interviews expanded the collection of biological data in Add Health to understand the social, behavioral, and biological linkages in health trajectories as the Add Health cohort ages through adulthood.

The American Community Survey
A survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau that uses a series of monthly samples to produce annually updated data for the same small areas (census tracts and block groups) as the decennial census long-form sample formerly surveyed. Initially, five years of samples are required to produce these small-area data. Once the Census Bureau has collected five years of data, new small-area data are produced annually. The Census Bureau will also produce three-year and single-year data products for larger geographic areas. Like the decennial census, the ACS will include people living in both housing units (HUs) and group quarters (GQ) facilities.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 (NLSY97)
The NLSY97, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consists of a nationally representative sample of approximately 9,000 youths who were 12 to 16 years old as of December 31, 1996. Round 1 of the survey took place in 1997. In that round, both the eligible youth and one of that youth's parents received hour-long personal interviews. Youths continue to be interviewed on an annual basis.

The NLSY97 collects extensive information on respondents’ labor market behavior and educational experiences. The survey also includes data on the youths’ family and community backgrounds to help researchers assess the impact of schooling and other environmental factors on these labor market entrants. Data from the NLSY97 also aid in determining how youths’ experiences relate to establishing careers, participating in government programs, and forming families. Finally, information from the NLSY97 allows researchers to compare the progress of this cohort with that of other NLS cohorts.

National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)
The NSFG, sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics, gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men's and women's health. The survey results are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others to plan health services and health education programs, and to do statistical studies of families, fertility, and health.

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
PSID, begun in 1968, is a longitudinal study of a representative sample of U.S. individuals (men, women, and children) and the family units in which they reside. It emphasizes the dynamic aspects of economic and demographic behavior, but its content is broad, including sociological and psychological measures. As a consequence of low attrition rates and the success in following young adults as they form their own families and recontact efforts (of those declining an interview in prior years), the sample size has grown from 4,800 families in 1968 to more than 7,000 families in 2001. At the conclusion of 2003 data collection, the PSID will have collected information about more than 65,000 individuals spanning as much as 36 years of their lives. The study is conducted at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan and has been made possible through the generous sponsorship of government agencies, foundations, and other organizations over the years.

Current Population Survey (CPS)
A monthly survey of about 50,000 households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey has been conducted for more than 50 years. The CPS is the primary source of information on the labor force characteristics of the U.S. population. The sample is scientifically selected to represent the civilian noninstitutional population. Respondents are interviewed to obtain information about the employment status of each member of the household 15 years of age and older. However, published data focus on those ages 16 and over. The sample provides estimates for the nation as a whole and serves as part of model-based estimates for individual states and other geographic areas.

Estimates obtained from the CPS include employment, unemployment, earnings, hours of work, and other indicators. They are available by a variety of demographic characteristics including age, sex, race, marital status, and educational attainment. CPS data are used by government policymakers and legislators as important indicators of our nations’s economic situation and for planning and evaluating many government programs. They are also used by the press, students, academics, and the general public.

Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies (ECLS-B and ECLS-K)
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program has been designed to include two overlapping cohorts: a Birth Cohort and a Kindergarten Cohort. The birth cohort follows a sample of children from birth through kindergarten entry. The kindergarten cohort follows a sample of children from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

The ECLS Program provides national data on children's status at birth and at various points thereafter; children's transitions to nonparental care, early education programs, and school; and children's experiences and growth through the eighth grade. The ECLS program also provides data to analyze the relationships among a wide range of family, school, community, and individual variables with children's development, early learning, and performance in school.

Adolescent Romantic Relationships as Precursors of Healthy Adult Marriages
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.

Trends in Marital Stability
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.

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Organizations Supporting National Research

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is the main government entity that funds programs for families and children and research about families and marriage. Within DHHS, many divisions study marriage and family formation, functions and patterns and support evaluations of marriage education programs. The three most prominent divisions in this field are:

In addition, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), located within the National Institutes of Health, has also been instrumental in funding research to further our understanding of family functioning and effective supports for families and marriage. SAMHSA’s mission is to build resilience and facilitate recovery for people with or at risk for mental or substance use disorders.

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