Recent reports,, have highlighted a concerning trend in Ģ����Ƶ—declining marriage rates.

According to data from the, only 30% of Ģ����Ƶns have been married at least once in their lives. This is indicative of a larger national trend: The marriage rate across the U.S. by nearly 60% over the past 50 years.

While societal pressures to marry have lessened and many young people doubt the benefits of marriage, this decline raises important questions about the impact on individual well-being and societal mobility.

Marriage rates in Ģ����Ƶ are a leading factor in quality of life

Helping people form healthy, committed relationships is a key pillar of the Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity’s mission to help all Ģ����Ƶns flourish. Relationships are essential to well-being in general, but marriage has a particular impact on the quality of life and upward mobility for men, women, and children.

Quality of life

Marital status is one of the strongest predictors of adult well-being, surpassing other factors like education, race, age, and gender., married individuals often report higher levels of happiness and satisfaction compared to their unmarried peers. This isn’t just about companionship—marriage can provide emotional stability, financial security, and social support, all of which contribute to a better quality of life.

Upward mobility

. Couples often benefit from dual incomes, shared resources, and consolidated expenses, making it easier to save and invest in the future. This financial stability can lead to better opportunities in terms of education, homeownership, and overall wealth accumulation. Essentially, marriage can act as a catalyst for achieving a higher economic status and breaking free from cycles of poverty.

Benefits for children

Children raised in two-parent, married families often experience greater stability and economic advantages, contributing significantly to their overall well-being. from the Institute for Family Studies shows that children who live in households with married parents experience more financially secure environments, less conflict, and more parental support.

According to polling from Gallup, married people report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction. This is another indicator of how essential relationships are for personal well-being and quality of life. 

According to polling from Gallup, married people report higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction. This is another indicator of how essential relationships are for personal well-being and quality of life. 

Certain barriers in Ģ����Ƶ make marriage and its benefits hard to pursue

Despite marriage’s benefits, Ģ����Ƶ has several barriers that discourage marriage as a path to fulfilling relationships and flourishing lives. Educational challenges and a social safety net that frequently discourages marriage are a couple of significant roadblocks that can make it harder for people to pursue marriage.

Educational challenges

Educational attainment is another significant barrier. Those with higher levels of education are more likely to marry, but educational opportunities are not evenly distributed across the state. Addressing these disparities could encourage higher marriage rates and, consequently, greater upward mobility.

A social safety net that punishes marriage

Another significant barrier to marriage in Ģ����Ƶ is the “marriage penalty” embedded within many social safety net programs. The term refers to the phenomenon where low-income individuals or couples may actually lose financial benefits by getting married.

Programs such as Medicaid, housing assistance, and food stamps often have income thresholds that discourage marriage. When two low-income individuals marry, their combined income might exceed these thresholds, leading to a reduction or complete loss of benefits—creating a “benefits cliff.”

This financial disincentive can make marriage less appealing for low-income individuals who rely on these crucial programs to make ends meet. By losing access to necessary support, the economic stability that marriage can potentially offer is compromised, perpetuating a cycle where the cons outweigh the pros.

Addressing these safety-net barriers is essential for fostering an environment where marriage can thrive and contribute positively to individual and societal well-being.

The way forward

While the decline in marriage rates in Ģ����Ƶ is a complex issue influenced by various societal and economic factors, it’s essential to recognize the underlying benefits of marriage. Beyond the romantic ideals, marriage plays a pivotal role in enhancing quality of life and facilitating upward mobility.

To counteract the downward trend, it’s necessary to address the barriers that discourage marriage and create a more supportive environment for couples.

The post Marriage Rates in Ģ����Ƶ Are Down. But Marriage Still Matters For Quality of Life and Upward Mobility. appeared first on For Opportunity.

Addressing Income Inequality

Income inequality is on the rise. Social mobility is on the decline. Politicians focus a lot of firepower on these two realities, but they too often ignore a major driver of these trends—one that might surprise you. That’s the drop in the percentage of stable, two-parent households.

At the Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity, our goal is to reduce poverty and encourage human flourishing. Healthy families are a key part of that. What often gets shunted to the side in this discussion, however, is how much family composition matters.

Family Matters

Bravely entering into this political fray is Brookings Institution economist Melissa Kearney with her new book,. Coming from a centrist (if not center-left) worldview, Kearney provides a refreshing and clear-eyed assessment of the powerful role that marriage plays in reducing poverty and bolstering economic well-being for children, adults and the nation as a whole.

Kearney even frames her book title in terms progressives better understand by using the term “privilege”—precisely what two-parent households afford children across a spectrum of metrics ranging from educational outcomes to behavioral tendencies, rates of incarceration and the likelihood of achieving the American Dream.

Here, Kearney asserts, “The decline in the share of US children living in a two-parent family over the past 40 years has not been good—for children, for families, or for the United States.”

Going further, she says, “Based on the overwhelming evidence at hand, I can say with the utmost confidence that the decline in marriage and the corresponding rise in the share of children being raised in one-parent homes has contributed to the economic insecurity of American families, has widened the gap in opportunities and outcomes for children from different backgrounds, and today poses economic and social challenges that we cannot afford to ignore—but may not be able to reverse.”

Of course, nobody seeks to stigmatize or deny the heroic efforts that loving and dedicated single parents sacrificially pour out to raise their children in difficult circumstances. Indeed, Kearney argues for strengthening the safety net for all families—regardless of structure.

But as she shows, the data can’t be so easily dismissed by those who resist policy discussions involving family formation distinctions.

The data backs it all up

Consider: 2019 US Census statistics reveal that families headed by a single mother were five times more likely to live in poverty than families headed by a married couple, while families headed by a single father were nearly twice as likely to live in poverty.

Further, research shows that graduated from college by their mid-20s, compared to 17% for Millennials from non-intact homes. Moreover, 77% of Millennials who grew up with the two-parent privilege attained a middle-class or higher lifestyle by their mid-30s, compared to 57% from non-intact families.

And then there are many studies from Utah, where—more than any other state—marriage and two-parent households are encouraged. Indeed, of economic performance—including GDP growth, favorable business climate, work environment and high rates of economic mobility. And Utahns experience lower child poverty and criminality rates, while enjoying enviable levels of emotional and physical wellbeing, healthy behaviors, life evaluation, student educational performance, and median family income.   

Taken together, these data suggest that stable, intact, two-parent marriages lay the foundation for strong families, which in turn create thriving communities of men, women and children. 

To alleviate poverty by strengthening two-parent households, Kearney suggests several policy proposals:

• Work to restore and foster a norm of two-parent homes for children
• Work to improve the economic position of men without a college level of education so they are more reliable marriage partners and fathers
• Scale up government and community programs that show promise in strengthening families and improving outcomes for parents and children from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Have a stronger safety net for families, regardless of family structure

Stronger Families Create Thriving Communities

Our vision is one where everyone has the support that comes from healthy thriving relationships and family.

The Policy Prescription

In offering these policy prescriptions, however, she adds that economics and government intervention can only do so much. There must also be grassroots, cultural change at the neighborhood and community levels. That’s why marriage enrichment and parenting classes like Raising Highly Capable Kids are crucial to reducing poverty.

Commendably, Kearney addresses a related—and also politically sensitive—topic: The important role that fathers play in society. She writes, “The absence of a father from a child’s home appears to have direct effects on children’s outcomes—and not only because of the loss of parental income. Nonfinancial engagement by a father has been found to have beneficial effects on children’s outcomes.”

Indeed, a father’s presence in the home is particularly important for boys. As Kearney notes, “Boys and young men are faring worse than girls and young women on a host of behavioral, educational, and economic dimensions. This gender gap in outcomes has been linked to the heightened disadvantage boys face when growing up without a father figure in their home.”

Of course, this creates a vicious cycle: Boys growing up without their fathers have a higher likelihood of themselves falling into traps of poverty: “The more boys struggle and fall behind, the less prepared they will be as adults to be reliable economic providers as husbands and dads,” Kearney writes.

Here, she points to our country’s crisis of masculinity and how declining labor force participation rates by prime-age men contribute to the marriage problem. Recent cultural shifts have “stripped many men of their traditional role as breadwinner for the family and, in simple terms, made them less desirable marriage partners,” she writes.

Clearly, the challenge is how to promote stable marriages and families when males increasingly remain in perpetual adolescence and fail to assume adult responsibilities that lead to success in work, marriage, and family.

Where do we go from here?

So how can we build more two-parent homes? Certainly investing more in vocational education and apprenticeships for men will help—as will implementing criminal justice reform and addressing the pandemic of untreated mental illness and opioid addiction among men.

Beyond these, we should expand school choice so that impoverished children stuck in failing public school districts have an opportunity to achieve a good education. And we need to eliminate marriage penalties in programs like Medicaid and public housing that punish marriage and encourage single-parenthood.

But perhaps most of all we need to have a frank national discussion about the importance of two-parent families “without coming across as shaming or blaming single mothers,” as Kearney writes. “By being honest about the benefits that a two-parent family home confers to children, we can break the pattern in which social agnosticism treats all households as the same in terms of the benefits they deliver children.”

The post The two-parent privilege and how it helps families escape poverty appeared first on For Opportunity.

Key Points

• Utah’s economic success and high levels of happiness are attributed to the quantity of marriages and cohabiting married parents, leading to strong family structures and economic mobility.
• The “Family Impact Perspective” proposed by Brad Wilcox offers guidelines to strengthen marriages, encourage desired parenthood, improve family affordability, and enhance family relationships in pursuit of economic success and well-being.
• Ģ����Ƶ, facing economic challenges and family-related issues, can learn from Utah’s success and consider implementing similar policies and projects to foster a “Ģ����Ƶ Family Miracle” and improve economic mobility rates.

No matter how you spin it, Utah has enjoyed great success in recent years. The Beehive State tops national charts economically—with particular success in economic mobility— as well as scoring highly in happiness, evaluated through emotional health ratings.��

Sociologist Brad Wilcox these achievements to the quantity of marriages in the state. In Utah, adults ages 18-55 are 10% more likely to be married than other Americans (55% versus the national average of 45%) and children are 7% more likely to grow up with cohabiting married parents than their peers in other states (82% versus the national average of 75%).

What’s more, Utah enjoys some of the greatest economic mobility in the country. And according to numerous economists, this is probably due to young people living in married families. Wilcox writes that the poor children in the Salt Lake area whose lot is improving “are much more likely to be raised in a two-parent family and to be surrounded by peers from two-parent families than poor kids in other metro areas.”��

Yet Utah’s economic success has also attracted many newcomers to the state, who have driven the marriage and fertility rates down, as Wilcox explains. Across the state’s counties, from Salt Lake City to rural areas to Utah County, which boasts some of the highest population and birth rate growth, immigration has inflated population counts and decreased fertility. While the state still leads the country in fertility and marriage, there are indeed “clouds on the horizon” as national cultural norms descend upon the state.��

The “Utah Family Miracle” might be seeing its last days.��

Where do we go from here?

In a recent report with the Sutherland Institute, Wilcox promotes a “Family Impact Perspective” through which all “states laws, regulations and initiatives” might be considered. He writes that this framework would assist in the pursuit of the following targets:��

• Strengthen marriage—measured in terms of both the rate and stability of marriage
• Encourage couples to have the children they wish to have��
• Make family life affordable for ordinary working families��
• Enable husbands, wives, children, and especially parents to maximize their time with their families
• Increase the quality of family relationships by increasing positive and reducing negative (e.g., domestic violence) interactions in families.

��This perspective is flexible to the needs of the state and offers guidelines and signs of success for legislators and the families that they serve.

Ģ����Ƶ, facing economic challenges and family-related issues, can learn from Utah’s success and consider implementing similar policies and projects to foster a “Ģ����Ƶ Family Miracle” and improve economic mobility rates.

Ģ����Ƶ, facing economic challenges and family-related issues, can learn from Utah’s success and consider implementing similar policies and projects to foster a “Ģ����Ƶ Family Miracle” and improve economic mobility rates.

Sutherland and Wilcox’s report culminates in five policy recommendations that solidify the Family Impact Perspective. Utah already enjoys ranking as the best state in the country for families, but even there these productive steps are under consideration.

1. State reports should consider family structure when they track other socioeconomic factors. ��
2. The “Success Sequence” proposed by the Institute for Family Studies should be worked into public school curricula and premarital education.
3. States should provide families with young children a monthly allowance to “empower parents in their capacity to make choices about how to best care for their children.”
4. Address families’ cost of living, considering housing, schooling, and food as issues integral to family decisions.
5. Create a state commission on men and boys, as men everywhere increasingly fall by the wayside.��

These ideas address the biggest issues facing families in a holistic, productive manner. Ģ����Ƶ would do well to consider implementing similar policies and undertaking such projects.��

What’s in it for Ģ����Ƶ?��

A Ģ����Ƶ Family Miracle.��

The state has much to gain by considering what it would take to improve economic mobility rates until they rival Utah’s. Currently, Ģ����Ƶ in 12th economically and 24th for fiscal stability, and the economic mobility rate has critical attention for a decade. While many factors feed into economic mobility, leading Ģ����Ƶns ought to encourage study into the impact of family structure and costs of living on the prospects of the youngest citizens.��

Ģ����Ƶ’s immigration rates are much lower than Utah’s (-2.5%, whereas 8.4% of Utah’s population immigrants). This means Ģ����Ƶ might enjoy greater cultural stability, which should not be taken for granted. Rather, Ģ����Ƶ’s leaders ought to double down in their service to the constituency’s families and help them build happier homes where they have better relationships.

By multiple measurements, marriage in Ģ����Ƶ is far from the worst in the country, but there is still much work to be done if Ģ����Ƶns are to have the families and futures that they want. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that, in 2021, Ģ����Ƶ’s marriage rate was only 60% of Utah’s (at rates of 5.5% and 9.1%, respectively). Demographers have reported for years that Ģ����Ƶ’s divorce rate is among the highest in the U.S., and a 2020 study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Ģ����Ƶ Family Connection Partnership found that 33.5% of Ģ����Ƶ’s kids live in single-parent households—not accounting for cohabiting, unmarried parents.����

The easiest ways to increase familial connection include reducing tech use in the home, making family life more affordable with an allowance, and strengthening existing marriages through close review of couple’s needs, especially men struggling to be dependable citizens and fathers.

Talk To An Expert

Ģ����Ƶ The Author

David Bass

Press Manager

David Bass is��a journalist and communications professional with nearly two decades of experience in the world of PR, marketing, and publications.

The post Imagine a Ģ����Ƶ family miracle appeared first on For Opportunity.

We must…launch a movement that encourages young people of all races to adopt a new cultural norm concerning education, entrepreneurship, hard work, faith, responsible parenthood, and the timing of strong family formation.
Ian Rowe, Agency

That’s a quote from Ian Rowe’s book, Agency, and the reason we asked him to join us for Breakthrough last month.

Breakthrough’s purpose was to allow us time together for a powerful discussion about family, community, young people, and relationships.��

We know the Success Sequence works, but how do we get this important information to younger generations so they can take advantage of this��important “Pathway to Power” and understand that they have Agency in their lives?

Community. Relationships. Strong leadership examples.��

This means our bonds as a community are more important than ever. If we work as a team we can impact the lives of so many for good.��We’ve put together a couple of videos from our event which will allow you to hear the wisdom shared by our speakers, like Ian Rowe, “who says that we have to teach young people that they have the power to make good choices in life and that they are not victims.” We hope you’ll take a moment to watch and listen, along with take action to make change happen.

If you’d like to get more involved there are some ways you can make a big impact.��

1. Take some time to learn how to have the healthiest relationships possible by signing up for at GCO.

2.Talk to your children and other young people about the power of graduating high school, working hard, and marriage in helping them achieve their dreams. The Success Sequence IS the Pathway to Power.

3. Teach young people they are not victims and have control over the most important aspects of their lives. Ian Rowe’s four-point plan (F.R.E.E.) is a critical way to show young people that they have.

��

The post Breakthrough Transforming Broken Relationships Into Flourishing Families appeared first on For Opportunity.

As an organization whose mission is to alleviate poverty in communities across Ģ����Ƶ, we are sometimes asked why we choose to focus on healthy families. After all, some of the most contentious flash points in our culture today center on the divergent views Americans hold about the definition of marriage and the role of family in society.��

This is why many groups working on poverty alleviation sidestep the crucial role that family plays as the bedrock of society and instead focus on resolving the presenting symptoms of poverty—as important as they are—rather than the root causes. �� ��

But back in 2005, the Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity (GCO) was asked to participate in a healthy marriage initiative. In considering our involvement, we looked at the research on stable, intact, two-parent households and saw that this type of family structure is optimal when looking at a wide variety of social metrics—including poverty alleviation.��

And while there’s no doubt that single parents often do a great job raising children who become highly productive members of society, the data clearly show superior outcomes for children who come from loving, low-conflict, two-parent households—and that this family structure is key to dismantling generational poverty and building thriving communities.��

The bottom line is that while poverty can still be experienced in the context of two-parent households, it’s less likely to happen than in single-parent households. And as a root cause for poverty, we knew we had to focus on building healthy families if we wanted to help individuals flourish—and strengthen our communities and state. ��

This is why GCO has invested heavily over the years in programs that offer relationship education to men and women. And this is why we have worked hard to build coalitions of nonprofits, faith groups, and local businesses to go into communities and lovingly address factors that destabilize marriage and family like divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and domestic violence.

The Success Sequence provides an outline of how to reverse the cycle of poverty in our communities. GCO uses this as a framework for much of our work.

Learn more about the impact GCO is making on families within our state.��

To this end—thanks to a federal grant from the Bush Administration—we were able to offer training to help couples overcome barriers and strengthen their relationships. Through this healthy marriage initiative, we certified 1,000 trainers to go out into their communities and teach more than 5,000 couples how to improve the quality of their relationship and stabilize their families. ��

Today, GCO continues to move forward with a holistic and comprehensive solution to poverty that takes aim at its root cause—family instability. And while we continue to offer relationship education, we have expanded our focus beyond romantic relations with our Healthy @ series that works with churches, schools and businesses to examine healthy relationships in other areas of life, including education and work.��

Our goal at GCO has always been to remove barriers to human flourishing. And as we know through the PERMA model that an underlying barrier to overcoming poverty is improving the quality of relationships.��

By focusing on healthy families, GCO helps people recognize and regulate their emotions, learn how to effectively communicate with family members, identify unhealthy behaviors and relationships, and establish appropriate boundaries. More than anything else, learning these skills changes the trajectory of individual lives. And this is how generational poverty is defeated and communities are transformed—one life at a time.

The post Origins of the Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity: Why we choose to focus on healthy families appeared first on For Opportunity.

Reflections of a Newlywed:��Lessons Learned From One Year Of Marriage

A little more than a year ago you all reached out to my husband, Harold, and me on our exciting new journey as a married couple. We are so grateful for all of the wisdom that you shared with us.

Since we have been married a year now, and as an ode to National Marriage Week, I thought you may be wondering how we are doing.�� We are doing great!��

Here are just a few of the nuggets of wisdom�� passed onto us, which we really relied on this first year:

• Overcome stressors in your marriage by making your marriage a priority
• Never criticize your marriage in public and keep your marriage off of social media��
• Be intentional about serving in your marriage
• Pray together
• Never end an apology with “but”
• Life is going to happen no matter what’s going on, so share these things with your partner.

“We are bringing you along with in a new life together. And, we’re going to be learning along the way.” ��

��

The gift of this advice was timely and helped us overcome unforeseen challenges that arrived after the wedding.

I have only shared this with a small group of people, however, shortly after we were married, Harold suffered a stroke. It was traumatic for us both. I thought to myself, “we just got together, Lord please don’t take him from me.”�� We had a tough hill to climb, but we were both strong mentally and we leaned on each other to get through it.�� Now that Harold is a lot better, he said�� he drew his strength from us, and we both realized it made us stronger.

What did we learn from all of this:��

1) We learned that mental support is needed just as much as medical support.�� It’s like a diet without exercise..��

2) We learned well-being as a couple is also just as important as it is for individuals.����

3) We also learned that community and a social network helps you get through it all.

Our community provided us with strong advice and principles which we continue to integrate into our marriage. We talk a lot about community at Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity, which is why we think it is important for you to experience community in our Family Life Education classes. In these classes we equip and empower you with the knowledge and skills that help you to become resilient.

As Harold and I continue our marital journey, we hope these words of wisdom will help improve the quality of all of your relationships. For those looking for a little extra nudge, The Family Life Classes are available along with our , and series on our website.

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A focus on the contributions of the African American family

As we head into February, we at the Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity (GCO) are proud to celebrate Black History Month and the experience of the African American community. In particular, we plan to take this month to celebrate and promote the African American family and how it has positively shaped our nation as a whole.

We believe that all communities can learn from each other. The strength and generational bond that is particularly strong within the African American family is something that should be applauded and modeled for others. African American families have had to face so much in our nation’s history—from slavery to legally sanctioned discrimination—yet there are so many stories of the triumphs and stories of these strong relationships. They inspire us all.

So this month we will feature blogs and commentary around family and the strength of the African American community.�� Expect to see features on Marriage Week (Feb. 7-14), the foundational principles that define family, creating an extended family for foster children, and fundamentals for a healthy marriage. These universal principles will help shape our understanding of what it means when we say “better relationships”.

The Success Sequence provides an outline of how to reverse the cycle of poverty in our communities. GCO uses this as a framework for much of our work.

Family makes us stronger

We are all stronger when we have the support base of a family that will stand by us throughout hardships. We know that the support structure and relationships formed out of strong family bonds lead to success throughout life. It is why we provide training and support to further family development in our communities. Healthy relationships and strong family bonds are a key part of the , a process that helps people avoid poverty and leads to meaningful work, finances, and relational lives.�� In short, it leads to a vibrant and thriving life.

We value the importance of listening and learning from the experiences of others. That is why throughout February we will be highlighting the strength and values of the African American family from the perspective of those in the African American community. GCO staff members will share their experiences and we will draw on the experiences of those we serve—all of this with the purpose of applauding the marriage, family, and diversity of experience

The post The importance of the African American family in our history appeared first on For Opportunity.

Check Out Part 2

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Why? Because we know that healthy marriages are a cornerstone of our society. And they’ll always be. We know that married people tend to be happier, healthier, wealthier, and enjoy more stability in their lives. Those benefits also extend to kids, who perform better in school and have a far slimmer chance of being in poverty.

In the spirit of celebrating all that’s great about marriage, we’re thrilled to recognize (February 7-14) leading up to Valentine’s Day. National Marriage Week seeks to foster collaboration around the country to “strengthen individual marriages, reduce the divorce rate, and build a culture that fosters strong marriages.”

One of our core goals here at Ģ����Ƶ Center for Opportunity (GCO) is to give couples the tools they need to not just survive, but thrive in their marriages. Empirical research clearly tells us that marriage is a crucial step toward achieving economic and relational stability. In fact, it’s one part of the three-part : Those who get a good education, work full-time, and marry before having children are nearly guaranteed a place in the middle class.

This National Marriage Week, if you’re looking for ways to strengthen your own relationship or help others strengthen theirs, here are several practical ways to get started:

• Sign up for a “Build my Relationship” web conference: �Ұ䰿’s Healthy Families Initiativeis now offering a new way to connect with licensed professionals via a series of live web conferences. You’ll have the opportunity to engage in conversation with our experts and gain insight into other resources and tools available to build your best relationship. Register Now.
• Attend a “Prepping for Romance” workshop: A “best of the best” relationship training workshop. Prepping for Romance helps build communication skills and provides the tools to create a solid marriage foundation.��Register Now.
• Help a teen with our “How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk or Jerkette” workshop: Want to help your teens navigate the challenging waters of dating and relationships and build a strong foundation for marriage? This interactive workshop is designed specifically for high school students and teaches them how to effectively date with long-term, healthy relationships in mind. Register Now.

The post Happy National Marriage Week! appeared first on For Opportunity.

1. Do you know your love language? ��If not, or it’s been awhile, take the online quiz to discover your love language.
2. While this tool does have a cost, the , is an online assessment to help you and your spouse identify the strongest portions of your relationship and the areas where you might need a little more TLC.
3. According to AJC.com, these are the for free or under $20 date night. ��

For more information on how you can better engage/strengthen your marriage, visit .

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