Government-supported healthy marriage initiatives are not associated with changes in family demographics: A comment on Hawkins, Amato, and Kinghorn (2013)

Family Relations

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 300-304

  Johnson, Matthew D ^a  

^a BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Family demographics; Healthy marriage initiatives; Marital discord; Marriage

Indexed keywords

EID: 84895134111     PISSN: 01976664     EISSN: 17413729     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/fare.12060     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Administration for Children and Families. (2005). ACF Healthy Marriage mission. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthymarriage/about/mission.html
2. Avishai, O., Heath, M., & Randles, J. (2012). Marriage goes to school. Contexts, 11, 34-38. doi:10.1177/1536504212456180
3. Bir, A., Corwin, E., MacIlvain, B., Beard, A., Richburg, K., Smith, K., & Lerman, R. I. (2012). The community Healthy Marriage Initiative evaluation: Impacts of a community approach to strengthening families (OPRE Report #2012-34A). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
4. Blankenhorn, D. (1995). Fatherless America: Confronting our most urgent social problem. New York: Harper Perennial.
5. Blow, C. M. (2013, August 3). Marriage and minorities [Commentary]. The New York Times, p. A19.
6. Catlett, B. S., & Artis, J. E. (2004). Critiquing the case for marriage promotion. Violence Against Women, 10, 1226-1244.
7. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-171, 120 Stat. 4 (2006).
8. Edin, K., & Kefalas, M. (2005). Promises I can keep: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage. Berkley: University of California Press.
9. Edin, K., & Reed, J. M. (2005). Why don't they just get married? Barriers to marriage among the disadvantaged. The Future of Children, 15, 117-137.
10. Hawkins, A. J., Amato, P. R., & Kinghorn, A. (2013). Are government-supported Healthy Marriage Initiatives affecting family demographics? A state-level analysis. Family Relations, 62, 501-513. doi:10.1111/fare.12009
11. Hawkins, A. J., & Ooms, T. (2012). Can marriage and relationship education be an effective policy tool to help low-income couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships? A review of lessons learned. Marriage & Family Review, 48, 524-554. doi:10.1080/01494929.2012.677751
12. Hawkins, A. J., Stanley, S. M., Cowan, P. A., Fincham, F. D., Beach, S. R. H., Cowan, C. P., ... Daire, A. P. (2013). A more optimistic perspective on government-supported marriage and relationship education programs for lower income couples: Response to Johnson (2012). American Psychologist, 68, 110-111. doi:10.1037/a0031792
13. Heath, M. (2012). One marriage under God: The campaign to promote marriage in America. New York: New York University Press.
14. Hsueh, J., Alderson, D. P., Lundquist, E., Michalopoulos, C., Gubits, D., Fein, D., & Knox, V. (2012). The supporting Healthy Marriage evaluation: Early impacts on low-income families (OPRE Report #2012-11). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
15. Insko, C. A. (2002). Editorial. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1330-1332. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1330
16. Johnson, M. D. (2012). Healthy Marriage Initiatives: On the need for empiricism in policy implementation. American Psychologist, 67, 296-308. doi:10.1037/a0027743
17. Johnson, M. D. (2013). Optimistic or quixotic? More data on marriage and relationship education programs for lower income couples. American Psychologist, 68, 111-112. doi:10.1037/a0031793
18. Karney, B. R., & Bradbury, T. N. (2005). Contextual influences on marriage: Implications for policy and intervention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 171-174.
19. Lee, S.-H. (2013, August 5). Mom wants you married? So does the state. The New York Times, p. A1 & A8.
20. O'Reilly, B. (2013a, July 28). Traditional families would give stability to young black men [Commentary]. Press & Sun-Bulletin, pp. C1 & C4.
21. O'Reilly, B. (2013b, August 4). Want to help the kids? Encourage traditional families [Commentary]. Press & Sun-Bulletin, p. C3.
22. Obama, B. (2006). The audacity of hope: Thoughts on reclaiming the American dream. New York: Crown.
23. Popper, K. R. (1959). The logic of scientific discovery (English translation ed.). New York: Basic Books.
24. Rogge, R. D., Cobb, R. J., Lawrence, E., Johnson, M. D., & Bradbury, T. N. (in press). Is skills training necessary for the primary prevention of marital distress and dissolution? A 3-year experimental study of three interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0034209.
25. Silva, J. M. (2013). Coming up short: Working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty. New York: Oxford University Press.
26. Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22, 1359-1366. doi:10.1177/0956797611417632
27. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
28. Trail, T. E., & Karney, B. R. (2012). What's (not) wrong with low-income marriages. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74, 413-427. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00977.x
29. Utah Marriage Commission Act, Utah Code Ann. § 26-1-40 (2013).
30. Waite, L. J., & Gallagher, M. (2000). The case for marriage. New York: Doubleday.
31. Warren, E., & Tyagi, A. W. (2003). The two-income trap: Why middle-class mothers and fathers are going broke. New York: Basic Books.
32. Whitehead, B. D. (1997). The divorce culture: Rethinking our commitments to marriage and family. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
33. Wilson, J. Q. (2002). The marriage problem: How our culture has weakened families. New York: HarperCollins.
34. Wilson, W. J. (2009). More than just race: Being black and poor in the inner city. New York: Norton.
35. Wood, R. G., Moore, Q., Clarkwest, A., Killewald, A., & Monahan, S. (2012). The long-term effects of Building Strong Families: A relationship skills education program for unmarried parents. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.