Supporting Healthy Marriage Project

The Supporting Healthy Marriage Project (SHM) is part of the Healthy Marriage Initiative funded by the <a href="/facts/U.S._Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services/eS90vYmd">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services</a>, <a href="/facts/Administration_for_Children_and_Families/HvQtayMz">Administration for Children and Families</a>, that was launched in 2003 as "the first large-scale, multisite, multiyear, rigorous test of marriage education programs for low-income married couples". The project is motivated by research that "indicates that married adults and children raised by both parents in stable, low-conflict households do better on a host of outcomes". The evaluation is led by <a href="/facts/MDRC/nJQCAeHM">MDRC</a>, in collaboration with Abt Associates and other partners. USASpending.gov reports payments of more than $30 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to MDRC for work on the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project from 2009 to 2012.
Major study questions of the Supporting Healthy Marriage Project include: 

<ol><li>What are the experiences, issues and challenges in designing, implementing and operating healthy marriage education and related services for lower-income couples with children?</li>
<li>What are the net impacts of the programs on: marital stability and relationship quality; attitudes and expectations regarding their marriage; parenting attitudes and behaviors; measures of adult well-being and child well-being and development (e.g., cognitive, social, emotional, health), and economic outcomes for families?</li></ol>
Limited federal funding for a Healthy Marriage Initiative began in 2001 to "help couples who choose to get married gain greater access to <a href="/facts/Relationship_education/uze0dpkH">marriage education</a> services that will enable them to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage." In 2005, <a href="/facts/Wade_Horn/yonlcSgV">Wade Horn</a>, Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, highlighted plans for a significant expansion of funding in testimony before the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, House Committee on Education and the Workforce:

<blockquote>"Although I have focused on the areas of primary interest to your committee, I would be remiss if I did not briefly highlight other key areas of our proposal that play a critical role in the well-being of children, teenagers, and families. Indeed, we establish improving the well-being of children as the overarching purpose of <a href="/facts/Temporary_Assistance_for_Needy_Families/oBz8vtps">TANF</a>.... In support of that overarching purpose, our proposal seeks to improve child well-being through programs aimed at encouraging responsible fatherhood and healthy marriages. By discontinuing the Out of Wedlock Birth Reduction Bonus and redirecting part of the High Performance Bonus Funding, we provide $200 million for programs aimed at promoting family formation and healthy marriages. We also provide $40 million in funding for the support of responsible fatherhood and healthy marriage programs to reverse the rise in father absence and its subsequent impact on children."</blockquote>

Supporting Healthy Marriage Project open-in-new

Supporting Healthy Marriage Project