Another perspective on "Poor Want To Marry" - Ooms & Parke, 11/19/01

[Smartmarriages ®]

subject: Another perspective on "Poor Want To Marry" -Ooms & Parke, 11/19/01

from: Smart Marriages

Dear Smart Marriages,
 
Patrick Fagan is certainly correct when he reports in a new Heritage
Foundation Backgrounder ("New Study Indicates Poor Want to Marry, Oct 23
http://archives.his.com/smartmarriages/msg01621.html) that the majority of
poor unwed parents value marriage and want to marry.  It's a big leap from
this finding, however, to conclude as he does that the Congress should
require states to use surplus TANF (welfare reform) monies to promote
marriage.  New research, using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing
(FFCW) data which Fagan cites, underscores the fact that the reasons why so
many poor unmarried parents do not marry are complex, and the solutions to
this problem are not simple.  (FFCW is a rigorous study of out of wedlock
childbearing in 20 cities, with a sample of about 5,000 children and their
parents -- not merely the 384 in New York City Fagan refers to.  See
http://crcw.princeton.edu/fragilefamilies/nationalreport.pdf for more
information.)

This notion of simply "promoting" marriage does not take into account the
low capacities and multiple partnerships of many poor, unwed families.  It
is true, as Fagan says, that a large proportion of unwed parents in the FFCW
study are committed to each other and to their child when the child is born
and that about 50% report that they live together and hope to marry, though
few do so.  Most are poorly equipped to support themselves and their
children because of numerous barriers such as lack of education and
employment.  Having a job is a critical first step to a successful marriage
and in the  FFCW data, only 3 out of 10 fathers were working in the week
prior to the study.  These couples also lack education - about 1/3 of both
mothers and fathers in the study lacked a high school education, and roughly
1/3 had only a high school education.

Into this mix, we add the fact that many of these parents have
children with numerous partners.  Recent analyses of the FFCW data
reported by Dr. Ron Mincy (Columbia University, School of Social Work) at a
recent conference of policy wonks in Washington, shows that 1/3 of unwed
mothers interviewed at the time of the birth of their child already had at
least 1 child by another father, and 1/5 of mothers in their late twenties
and thirties have 2 or more children by another father. Having a child from
another union makes it less likely that mothers or fathers will marry and
raises questions about simplistic recommendations to promote marriage among
fragile families. For example, who is supposed to get married to whom?  And
what does "promote" mean in these situations?

Given how little state governments know at this point about how to
help strengthen couples' relationships and promote marriage, they need to be
encouraged, not required, to develop creative approaches to working with
unwed parents.  States need to make sure these efforts are carefully
evaluated, and that the goals are realistic. This may involve providing a
variety of services to the fathers as well as the mothers (for example,
assistance in getting jobs, or enrolling in substance abuse treatment) as
well as teaching them relationships skills.  For some unwed parents it will
be possible and desirable to help them move towards marriage; for others,
who are already in new relationships, the optimum goal may be to help them
co-parent, visit their child and pay child support regularly. For some, the
best solution may be to encourage them to marry their new partner if that is
what they want, but for others creating stepfamilies may not be the best
solution for the child or the parents.

Theodora Ooms and Mary Parke
Couples and Marriage Policy Resource Center
Center for Law and Social Policy
tooms at clasp.org, mparke at clasp.org

Clearly we all have our work cut out for us and will especially need good
stepfamily education programs for what's coming.  - diane

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