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SIU 2015 Teaser: Can We Join Together For the Sake of Our Children?

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by Caitlin La Ruffa

aroni-738306_640With election season heating up and debates already in full swing, we find ourselves asking the perennial question – how can we ensure that our children will have a hopeful future? What kinds of policies are best to help all of America’s children succeed in life? Disagreements about amnesty, Common Core, gun control, welfare, tax policy, and beyond all take the wellbeing of our children – and their future – as a jumping off point. People of goodwill on both sides of the aisle can (and will) debate the merits of this or that welfare policy and this or that education plan, but the most important factor in determining the future health, happiness, and flourishing of our children isn’t (directly) related to public policy, according to renowned researcher W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia: It’s marriage. Whether or not a child grows up with his or her married mother and father may be the single most important factor in predicting his or her future success. In a recent Atlantic article Wilcox explains:

My own research using individual-level data from the Add Health dataset …indicates that adolescents raised in intact, married homes are significantly more likely to succeed educationally and financially. The benefits are greatest for less privileged homes—that is, where their mother did not have a college degree….The marriage bump is strongest among families where the parents didn’t go to college.

As the marriage gap continues to widen – with college-educated Americans continuing to marry and postpone childbearing until after nuptial vows have been exchanged while working class Americans trade marriage in for other arrangements like serial cohabitation – the “marriage bump” becomes increasingly important. Elsewhere Wilcox writes:

This unequal retreat from marriage is deeply implicated in many of the social ills at the top of progressives’ concerns: child poverty, income inequality, and stagnating family income. That’s because a disproportionate share of low- and middle-income families today are headed by single parents, usually a single mother, who generally can bring even fewer economic resources to the table than she could if she was married….My research with the Urban Institute’s Robert Lerman suggests that about one-third of the growth in family-income inequality can be linked to declines in marriage since the 1970s.

For any concerned citizen, that makes marriage a serious issue of social justice. At Sexuality, Integrity, and the University, Dr. Wilcox will delve deeper into the factors that have contributed to this marriage divide – and how those who are concerned about social justice on both the left and right can work toward policies and cultural changes that will encourage adults to marry (and stay married) and thus contribute to a flourishing future for all our children.

Caitlin La Ruffa is the Director of the Love and Fidelity Network. 

The post SIU 2015 Teaser:
Can We Join Together For the Sake of Our Children?
appeared first on Love & Fidelity Network.


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