Researchers and Evaluators

Research on marriage and family spans the fields of demography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, human development and family studies. Similarly, program evaluators have different educational backgrounds and experience with marriage education, and may use various evaluation models to achieve evaluation goals ranging from program refinement to academic publications.

We know how difficult it is to keep up with this ever–growing, multidisciplinary field. On these pages you will find information about the latest research and evaluation measures. We offer research summaries and resources to help you evaluate healthy marriage programs. The Center also provides descriptions of research concepts (e.g., calculations of divorce rates) and findings in non–statistical, lay language.

Recent Research: This section of the website provides references to some of the newest, thought provoking and publicized research and reports pertaining to Healthy Marriages.
Research by Topic: This section of the website includes bibliographies of seminal and on-going works that address aspects of a singular topic within the field, like non-martial childbearing or historical changes in the institution of marriage.
Research Resources: This section of the website contains research fact sheets that provide a clear and simplified breakdown of a specific marriage related issue or topic. Research syntheses analyze a body of research around a topic or issue, identify consistent findings and indicate important gaps in the current state of knowledge.
Marriage Statistics: This section of the website includes resources on the collection, reporting and analyzing of marriage statistics.
Divorce Statistics: This section of the website includes resources on the collection, reporting and analyzing of divorce-related statistics.
Relationship and Family Statistics: This section of the website includes resources on the collection, reporting and analyzing of family and relationship statistics.
Evaluating Healthy Marriage Programs: This section of the website includes resources dedicated towards program evaluation, published evaluation articles and links to additional centers designed to provide evaluation support.
Cultural Impacts on Marriage and Relationships: This section of the website includes information applicable to various cultures, including African-American families, Hispanic families, Asian and Pacific Islander families, Native American families, and intercultural families.
National Research Studies: There is extensive literature relating to marriage and family, including research and evaluation projects funded by the federal government, and summaries of other important national-level marriage education evaluations.
State and Local Research Studies: This section of the website includes information on several state and community demographic surveys.
Professional Organizations: This section of the website contains information on various American and International professional organizations that either focus on marriage and family research or have a large number of members that do.
Research Advisory Groups: This section of the site includes information on some of the more prominent healthy marriage research advisory groups.