The National Marriage Project, U.Va.

Across Races, Couples that Pray Together Are Happier, NMP Study Finds

August 11, 2010 - The first major study to compare religion and relationship quality across America's major racial and ethnic groups finds that for all groups, shared religious activity - attending church together and especially praying together - is linked to higher levels of relationship quality.

African-Americans derive the most benefits from that connection because they are significantly more likely than whites or Latinos to pray together and attend church together, offsetting other socioeconomic factors tied to lower relationship quality - a finding dubbed the "African-American religion-marriage paradox," said W. Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.

For more, go to press release: www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=12551

The State of Our Unions, Marriage in America 2009: Money & Marriage

 
The State of Our Unions monitors the current health of marriage and family life in America. Produced annually, it is a joint publication of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.

The 2009 State of Our Unions makes clear that money matters for contemporary American marriages. In particular, this edition of The State of Our Unions answers the following questions:

• How is the Great Recession affecting the institution of marriage, as measured by changes in marriage and divorce rates in the U.S.?
• How do family finances—especially credit card debt and family assets—shape the quality and stability of contemporary married life in America?
• What do evolutionary psychology and the contemporary study of finance have to tell us about the best division of financial labor for husbands and wives?
• Is the Great Recession likely to foster egalitarian relationships between husbands and wives?

Editor: W. Bradford Wilcox
Associate Editor: Elizabeth Marquardt
Founding Co-editors: David Popenoe & Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

Features: