[acb-hsp] Putting Children First

[peter altschul]

Putting Children First
  6/3/2011 Linda Chavez
  For the first time in history, less than half of Americans now 
live in married-couple households.  The new finding by the Census 
Bureau reflects the most profound change in the nature of 
American society ever to have occurred, yet practically no one 
talks about it.  Only 48 percent of American households are made 
up of married couples.  These numbers reflect a sea change in 
living arrangements.  In 1950, married couples were 78 percent of 
all households.
  Some of these figures reflect our aging population: We have 
more widows and widowers than at any time in the past.  But they 
also reflect changing mores.
  People are marrying at older ages, and larger numbers are 
choosing not to marry at all, not to stay married, and to have 
children outside of marriage.  A new Gallup poll shows that more 
people now approve of both out-of-wedlock births and divorce.  
Only 41 percent of Americans believe it is morally wrong to bear 
a child outside marriage, and a mere 23 percent think divorce is 
morally wrong.
  What all this means is that increasing numbers of children are 
growing up without two parents, and few policymakers seem to 
care, even though the societal consequences bode ill for the 
future.  Myriad studies have documented that children who grow up 
without two parents are more likely to do worse in school, drop 
out, commit crimes, and earn less during their lifetimes than 
those who are raised with both parents, even adjusting for 
economic status and race.  They are also far less likely to have 
stable relationships and marriages as adults, thus fueling the 
cycle of marriage breakdown.
  Perhaps the most alarming result of this family breakdown comes 
from a new analysis of longitudinal data from a large cohort of 
young children -- primarily bright, white children born to 
middle-class and affluent parents -- who were followed throughout 
their lives.  The study found that even relatively privileged 
children suffered when their parents divorced.  According to 
researchers Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin, the children of 
divorce had an average lifespan five years shorter than those 
whose parents stayed married.  And children of divorce aren't as 
bad off as children whose parents never married, who now make up 
the vast majority of African-American children, and a growing 
number of Hispanic and working-class white children.
  So what are policymakers doing about the problem? Not much.  
Indeed, the rare discussions that take place on public policy 
toward marriage focus on whether gay couples should be allowed to 
marry.  But that's hardly the biggest issue.  However individuals 
feel about gay marriage, the real threat to the institution of 
marriage is one posed by the decline in the institution among 
heterosexuals.
  There isn't much government can do to encourage people to 
marry; but for the last 40 years, government has been heavily 
implicated in encouraging divorce.  All states now have no-fault 
divorce laws, which make it easier to dissolve a marriage 
contract than a cellphone contract.  One thing policymakers could 
do is revisit the ease with which we allow couples -- especially 
those with minor children -- to dissolve their marriages.
  A new group, the Coalition for Divorce Reform, is trying to do 
just that.  Chris Gersten, a former Bush administration official 
and my husband of 44 years, started the organization -- and he is 
joined by many of the leading marriage and divorce experts in the 
country.  They are working together to promote legislation that 
will require divorcing couples to take research-based 
skills-training programs, which have been shown to reduce 
divorce.  The aim is to help those couples in low-conflict 
marriages if they have minor children and neither partner has 
engaged in physical abuse or is addicted to drugs or alcohol.  
More information can be found online at wwwdddivorcereformddinfo.
  This effort may not rescue the institution of marriage from the 
peril it's in, but it's a start.  New research tells us that 30 
percent of divorcing couples say they would be willing to 
reconcile if there were low-cost approaches to saving their 
marriages available.
  In the end, it's the children who pay for the devastating 
effects of divorce.  It's time we start putting our kids first.
  Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity 
and author of Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members 
and Corrupt American Politics.