The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia

01/13/2025

https://pewrsr.ch/3DWafBY
Definitely worth a read.

In 2023, 42% of adults were unpartnered, down from 44% in 2019. The decline in the share of adults who are unpartnered since 2019 has occurred across all age groups.

12/17/2024

https://wng.org/articles/busting-todays-anti-marriage-myths-1733634069

Timothy Lamer | 2024 BOOKS OF THE YEAR—GENERAL NONFICTION | A rigorous defense of family life

12/04/2024

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/relationships/emotional-affair-what-is-fe64a0f5

A connection can become inappropriately intimate, even when it isn’t sexual.

03/13/2024

Two spirited volumes take aim at the difficulties—and the cultural attitudes—that have discouraged couples from getting married and having kids.

03/01/2024

"Part of the story here is the emergence of what I call a Midas mind-set, where too many Americans, too many young adults especially, are either explicitly or implicitly assuming that life is about education, money and especially work. One Pew study found that for Americans in general, 71 percent thought having a job or career they enjoy is the path toward fulfillment and getting married was the path for only 23 percent. We’ve also seen the falling fortunes of men, especially men who don’t have college degrees. They’re much less connected to the work force and they’re less attractive for that reason in part."

Conservative-leaning intellectuals want more people to get married. But how does that actually happen? Jane Coaston interviews Brad Wilcox.

03/01/2024

Professor Brad Wilcox explains how marriage - not work or money - is the most powerful predictor of happiness in America today. He also details the 5 pillars of a strong marriage today.

Professor Brad Wilcox explains how marriage - not work or money - is the most powerful predictor of happiness in America today. He also details the 5 pillar...

02/22/2024

"Today in America the Jeffersonian vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in trouble. When it comes to life, what we're seeing is that scores of especially men are turning to drink, to pills, or the barrel of a gun, and record numbers are dying in what’s been called deaths of despair. When it comes to liberty, a lot of Americans understand that in terms of the ability to rise from rags to riches, and there are too many places in America where poor kids remain poor as adults. And when it comes to happiness, we've been seeing in both Gallup polls and the General Social Survey that happiness is down.

"You might think that this is about economic inequality, failing schools, race, or the current or potential future occupant of the White House. But when you look at the research, one of the most important factors is marriage or family structure. When we look at deaths of despair, for instance, what we see is that the impact of marriage on deaths of despair is more important than college, age, or racial factors. And new research from the University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman tells us that “the recent decline in the married share of adults can explain (statistically) most of the recent decline in overall happiness.”

A discussion with 'Get Married' author Brad Wilcox

02/16/2024

Brad Wilcox wants you to get married. In modern American society, cultural trends across the political spectrum discourage and devalue marriage as an institution, and economic incentives have only exacerbated this predicament. Some argue that marriage is a bad deal for women and others argue that it’s a bad deal for men, and Brad agrees that there are plenty of valid complaints to be made and addressed. However, he’s done his research and the data is clear. Marriage, including many traditional norms, is a net good for men, women, children, and American society as a whole.

Brad Wilcox wants you to get married. In modern American society, cultural trends across the political spectrum discourage and devalue marriage as an institu...

02/16/2024

Order your copy: https://amzn.to/49yDcib

"The phenomenon of people in society’s upper strata talking left but walking right is especially easy to spot at elite universities, but it extends well beyond university culture. A survey I helped lead of California adults in 2019 for the Institute for Family Studies, a think tank that seeks to strengthen marriage and family life, manifested a similar sociological pattern. Eighty-five percent of Californians with a college or graduate degree, ages 18 to 50, agreed that family diversity, “where kids grow up in different kinds of families today,” should be publicly celebrated (compared with 69 percent of Californians without a college education). But a clear majority of college-educated Californians, 68 percent, reported that it was personally important to them to have their own kids in marriage. Among those who were already parents, 80 percent were in intact marriages, compared with just 61 percent of their peers in the state who did not have a college degree.

"Likewise, the 2022 American Family Survey, a national survey, found that among college-educated liberals, ages 18 to 55, only 30 percent agreed that “children are better off if they have married parents.” Yet 69 percent of the parents within this same group were themselves stably married."

“Is it morally wrong to have a baby outside of marriage?” “No” is the answer I received from about two-thirds of my sociology-of-family class at the University of Virginia last spring, when I put that question to them in an anonymous online poll. The class of approximately 200 students was ...