In
the United States today, one child in three is born outside
marriage. The decline of marriage is a prominent cause of child
poverty, welfare dependence, and many other social problems. In
response to these concerns, President George W. Bush has proposed a
Healthy Marriage Initiative to promote and encourage strong
marriages. The proposed program would provide $300 million in
federal and state Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
money to state-level programs that promote marriage and
marriage-skills training, particularly among low-income and
"fragile" families. All participation in the President's marriage
program would be voluntary. The project would utilize existing
marriage-skills programs that have proven effective in decreasing
conflict--and increasing happiness and stability--among target
couples.
Erroneous
Criticisms of the Healthy Marriage Initiative Critics of
the President's Healthy Marriage Initiative assert that such a
program would encourage or force vulnerable women into violent and
dangerous relationships. Specifically, critics argue that a
substantial portion of low-income women who would participate in
the marriage program are in abusive relationships and that the
program would push women into marriages with abusive men, thus
increasing the rate of domestic abuse.
These claims are erroneous for a number of
reasons:
- Marriage education programs that would be
funded under the President's Healthy Marriage Initiative have been
shown to reduce--not increase--domestic abuse. In Oklahoma's
prototype program, 14,000 individuals have received training, and
not a single instance of domestic abuse linked to the program has
been reported.
- The primary target groups for the healthy
marriage programs would be unmarried couples at the time of a
child's birth or young, at-risk couples prior to conception. The
rate of domestic abuse in these groups is extremely low--around 2
percent.
- The prevalence of domestic abuse among
low-income women is often exaggerated by citing figures on whether
or not a woman has ever been abused in her lifetime rather than
whether or not abuse is occurring in a current romantic
relationship.
- Critics incorrectly assume that the target
population for the Healthy Marriage Initiative would be older,
single mothers in the TANF program. Generally, older welfare
mothers have already severed ties with their children's fathers.
Such relationships have often been terminated for several years:
These mothers, therefore, are not good candidates for a marriage
program. Healthy marriage programs would seek to improve the
stability and quality of relationships for low-income women at a
younger age. Couples at this stage of life--generally termed
"fragile families"--have relatively good prospects for entering
into healthy, stable marriages.
As noted, the rate of domestic violence among these couples is
low--around 2 percent. It is true that the rate of current domestic
abuse suffered by older mothers on welfare is far higher--around 20
percent to 30 percent--but these mothers would not be a target
group of the marriage initiative.
Thus, the assertion that welfare mothers experience high rates of
domestic abuse is irrelevant to an assessment of the Healthy
Marriage Initiative. By intervening at a younger age, the Healthy
Marriage Initiative would seek to improve the well-being of
children and to reduce future problems of child poverty and welfare
dependence.
- Many low-income mothers are trapped in
patterns of serial cohabitation--moving through a sequence of
fractured, failed relationships with men. It is within this pattern
of serial cohabitation that domestic violence is most likely to
occur. The Healthy Marriage Initiative could help prevent couples
from falling prey to this destructive pattern by giving them the
knowledge and skills needed to build healthy, stable marriages. The
proper time for such training is when couples are at a relatively
young age--either prior to conception or at the time of a child's
birth--before self-defeating patterns of distrust and acrimony have
developed.
By helping couples to avoid the pitfalls of serial failed
relationships, the Healthy Marriage Initiative will substantially
reduce, rather than increase, domestic violence. Indeed, unless
couples are equipped with the skills they need to develop healthy
relationships, it is difficult to imagine how the current rates of
domestic violence in low-income communities can be reduced.
There is overwhelming evidence that
marriage-skills training helps couples increase happiness, improve
their relationships, and avoid negative behaviors that can lead to
marital breakup. No fewer than 29 peer-reviewed social science
journal articles provide ample evidence (from actual experience)
that marriage education, training, and counseling programs
significantly strengthen the marriages of couples that take
advantage of such programs. These studies--integrating findings
from well over 100 separate evaluations--illustrate that a wide
variety of marriage-strengthening programs can reduce strife and
conflict, improve communication, increase parenting skills,
increase stability, and enhance marital happiness.
Conclusion
By specifically targeting young adult men and women and
at-risk high school students with information about the long-term
value of marriage, the Healthy Marriage Initiative is preventative,
not reparative, in nature. It seeks to prevent the isolation and
poverty of welfare mothers by intervening at an early point--before
a pattern of broken relationships and welfare dependence has
emerged. By fostering better life decisions and stronger
relationship skills, marriage programs will increase the well-being
of both children and adults and will reduce the likelihood of
poverty, welfare dependence, and violent relationships.
Robert Rector is Senior Research
Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies, and Melissa G. Pardue is a
Policy Analyst in the Domestic Policy Studies Department, at the
Heritage Foundation.