To understand the state of relationships, marriage, and divorce in the U.S., researchers have conducted studies at the State and local level. In a few States, these studies have been done to create a "baseline," or starting point of understanding against which progress can be measured moving forward.
California
The State of California's Unions: Marriage and Divorce in the Golden State
This survey, California’s Unions: Marriage and Divorce in the Golden State was commissioned by the California Healthy Marriages Coalition, who is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The survey sought to (1) determine how California residents view marriage, divorce and marriage education; (2) gain understanding about residents’ marriage and relationships, past and present, including relationship quality and family support; and (3) examine findings by demographic variables including gender, age, income, ethnicity, political affiliation, and religious involvement.
Florida
Funded by the Florida Department of Children and Families and conducted by researchers at the University of Florida, this survey sought to describe the range of family structures in Florida, the attitudes of Floridians towards marriage, family formation, and marriage education, and the characteristics associated with healthy intimate relationships. More than 4,500 adult residents in Florida were interviewed over the phone regarding these and related topics.
Kentucky
The Kentucky Marriage Attitudes Study, 2004 Baseline Survey (PDF - 341 KB)
This document serves as the project report for the 2003-2004 Research Activity Award
granted to provide benchmark measures regarding attitudes about marriage in
Kentucky. The study was designed to provide insight and direction for interventions if
such actions are initiated and as means by which to evaluate outcomes of potential
future relationship education interventions and/or marriage initiatives. The Research
Center for Families and Children at the University of Kentucky has focused efforts
toward gathering and reporting data regarding attitudes about marriage rather than
promoting specific programs or positions.
Michigan
This report uses data from the State of the State survey conducted by the Institute in 1999, which interviewed nearly 1,500 residents on their volunteer activities, mental health, families, and marriage. The report examines factors that contribute to happy marriages in Michigan, and the extent to which marital happiness differs across social and economic status.
This report highlights the findings from focus groups and surveys conducted in Pontiac and Saginaw Michigan by the Michigan State University Extension Service to inform the development of a community-based healthy marriage initiative. Report includes attitudes towards marriage, parenting, co-parenting, and other relationship issues.
Minnesota
This essay discusses the role of crime in the decline of marriage in Minnesota and in the broader United States. It examines the effect of collateral sanctions (laws that prohibit ex-offenders from holding certain types of jobs) and other employment barriers faced by formerly incarcerated men on their propensity to marry.
The Minnesota Income Tax Marriage Credit (2006) (PDF - 225 KB)
Written by the Minnesota House of Representatives Research Department in 2006, this document describes marriage penalties in the Minnesota and federal tax codes and how the state's income tax marriage credit is designed to reduce the effect of that penalty on married couples.
Oklahoma
Marriage in Oklahoma: A Statewide Baseline Survey on Marriage and Divorce (2001-2002)
To develop programs to promote and strengthen marriage for Oklahoma residents, the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), launched by former Governor Frank Keating in 1998, commissioned a survey to understand marriage and divorce rates in the state, as well as Oklahomans' attitudes towards marriage. In partnership with Oklahoma State University's Bureau for Social Research, and a group of nationally-recognized researchers and sociologists serving as advisors, the OMI designed and completed the first comprehensive statewide survey on marriage in the United States. The survey included questions on attitudes about relationships, demographic data on marriage, divorce, remarriage, patterns of cohabitation, and intent to marry/remarry, relationship quality, and views toward marriage education.
This brief provides an overview of the context, development, and logic of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI) as it stands today. The brief includes a conceptual model that depicts the main elements of the initiative and generally describes each of its component parts: the OMI's goals, philosophy of change, implementation strategy for facilitating change, process for building on research, and strategies for building capacity and demand for marriage-related services throughout the state. This is the first in a series of briefs that will be issued as part of a process evaluation of the OMI. A comprehensive final report documenting the issues and implications around the program design choices made by Oklahoma will also be produced.
The Oklahoma Marriage Initiative: A Process Evaluation (2008)
In the late 1990s the State of Oklahoma, recognizing the economic and social consequences of its high rates of divorce and non-marital childbearing, undertook an innovative strategy to strengthen families. At the direction of the Governor, the state initiated an effort to reduce divorce and decrease non-marital childbearing. This pioneering effort became the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), now the nation's longest running and most comprehensive set of programs to strengthen marriage. Much can be learned from the history and ongoing development of the OMI. Documenting and assessing the OMI experience can yield lessons for other states attempting similar large initiatives to strengthen marriage and provide feedback to the OMI itself. This evaluation had two main objectives: to document what the OMI is: its origins, the process by which it built its vision and support, its overarching philosophy, its use of research for guidance, its choice of a service model as vehicle for change, and the goals it has enunciated for changing systems and culture, and to assess the OMI's accomplishments and their implications, focusing on the extent of agency, volunteer, and participant engagement, as well as the challenges encountered along the way.
The OMI seeks to engage both the public and private sector in efforts to strengthen marriage throughout the state. In the public sector, OMI staff provide training and resources to staff at educational, correctional, human services, and health agencies that provide marriage education as part of their services. The focus of this brief is on efforts to engage the private sector in furthering the goals of the OMI. In particular, the brief explores work with the faith community as well as broader efforts that include members of the general public.
As the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative was being developed, its planners made a commitment to rely on research to guide its development. Research has been integral to its evolution, starting with the findings on family structure that first stimulated the idea for the initiative, to the development of subsequent strategies and approaches for implementation. Since 2001, the OMI has been guided by a panel of state and national experts on marriage, divorce, and low-income families. This interdisciplinary Research Advisory Group (RAG) includes academic scholars, university-based practitioners and researchers, and policy experts and evaluators who meet annually and sometimes contribute to other OMI research activities throughout the year. Their ongoing activities, including, for example, conducting small-scale studies of OMI programs and assisting in the development of dissemination materials that translate research findings for a broad audience, have two main benefits: they provide data on which the OMI can base continued development and improvement of program operations, and they lend credibility to and build awareness of the OMI within and outside of Oklahoma.
Putting Marriage on the Agenda: How Oklahoma Laid the Foundation for Its Marriage Initiative (2008)
This brief describes the development and early years of the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), including how Oklahoma developed public support, designed an intervention strategy, secured funding, set up a management structure, and formulated goals and objectives for its marriage initiative.
This brief describes how the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI) implemented relationship and marriage education classes in high schools across the state, and analyzes the key factors that made this implementation approach work.
A relationship education program called Within My Reach is included in a week of orientation activities for new TANF (public assistance) clients. An implementation study was conducted with the aims: 1) of providing an in-depth description of the program based on the researcher's observations; 2) of assessing, through in-depth interviews, the fit between the curriculum and the TANF clients' actual relationship situations and concerns; and 3) of assessing, through repeated interviews, the degree to which participants utilize skills taught in the program. The researcher observed Within My Reach classes in three Department of Human Services centers in the greater Oklahoma City area and interviewed twenty-two TANF clients who participated in the Within My Reach program. Analysis of interviews and field notes from observation of classes found that a good fit existed between topics covered in the curriculum and the TANF clients' actual relationship situations and concerns.
Tennessee
The State of the Family 2006 (Hamilton County, TN) (PDF - 560 KB)
Developed by the nonprofit organization First Things First in Chatanooga, this report offers demographic data and attitudes regarding marriage, divorce, and family formation for residents of Hamilton County, Tennessee.
Texas
Twogether in Texas: Baseline Report on Marriage in the Lone Star State, 2008 (PDF - 7 MB)
Measures and analyzes attitudes and beliefs related to healthy marriage. With over 2,500 Texans participating in phone interviews, which included questions on marriage, divorce, cohabitation and family roles, researchers were able to represent the diverse population of the state and subsequently develop a culturally relevant report on their findings. The authors of this report were careful to avoid extensive references to statistical procedures, and instead focused on developing a document that is equal-parts approachable and educational.
Utah
Marriage in Utah: 2003 Utah Baseline Statewide Survey on Marriage and Divorce (PDF - 300 KB)
Inspired by Oklahoma's 2001 Baseline Statewide Survey on Marriage and Divorce conducted in 2003, Utah launched a similar survey to help guide its state-level efforts to develop programs and policies that promote and strengthen marriage. This report provides the highlights of the 2003 Utah Baseline Statewide Survey on Marriage and Divorce prepared by researchers at Utah State University, in conjunction with Oklahoma State University's Bureau for Social Research. The survey includes demographic data on marriage, divorce, remarriage, and patterns of cohabitation among Utah residents. It also explores Utahans' perspective on the quality of their marriages, as well as overall attitudes towards marriage and divorce, with particular attention to the thoughts of young adults and low-income residents. Information is also provided on the impact of mental health and substance abuse problems on the quality of Utahan's unions.
National Healthy Marriage Resource Center
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Funding for this project was provided by the
United States Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and Families, Grant: 90-FH-0001
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