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.

Editor: W. Bradford Wilcox

Associate Editor: Elizabeth Marquardt

Founding Co-Editors: David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead

Board of Advisors

A Board of Advisors made up of the following distinguished scholars and professionals guides the work of the National Marriage Project.

William J. Doherty, University of Minnesota

Richard M. Campanelli, Esq.

Kathryn Edin, Harvard University

Christopher G. Ellison, University of Texas at San Antonio

Robert Emery, University of Virginia

William A. Galston, The Brookings Institution

Neil Gilbert, University of California at Berkeley

Norval D. Glenn, University of Texas at Austin

Ron Haskins, The Brookings Institution

G. Sim Johnston

Linda Malone-Colón, Hampton University

Elizabeth Marquardt, Institute for American Values

David G. Myers, Hope College

David Popenoe, Rutgers University, emeritus

Isabel Sawhill, The Brookings Institution

Scott Stanley, University of Denver

Linda J. Waite, University of Chicago

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Institute for American Values

James Q. Wilson, UCLA, emeritus

The National Marriage Project

The National Marriage Project (nmp) is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and interdisciplinary initiative located at the University of Virginia. The Project’s mission is to provide research and analysis on the health of marriage in America, to analyze the social and cultural forces shaping contemporary marriage, and to identify strategies to increase marital quality and stability. The nmp has five goals: 1) publish The State of Our Unions, which monitors the current health of marriage and family life in America; 2) investigate and report on the state of marriage among young adults; 3) provide accurate information and analysis regarding marriage to journalists, policy makers, religious leaders, and the general public—especially young adults; 4) conduct research on the ways in which children, race, class, immigration, ethnicity, religion, and poverty shape the quality and stability of contemporary marriage; and 5) bring marriage and family experts together to develop strategies for strengthening marriage. The nmp was founded in 1997 by family scholars David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. The Project is now directed by W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.

The Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values

Directed by Elizabeth Marquardt, the mission of the Center for Marriage and Families is to increase the proportion of U.S. children growing up with their two married parents. At the Center’s website, FamilyScholars.org, bloggers include emerging voices and senior scholars with distinctive expertise and points of view tackling today’s key debates on the family. The Institute for American Values is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to strengthening families and civil society in the U.S. and the world. The Institute brings together approximately 100 leading scholars—from across the human sciences and across the political spectrum—for interdisciplinary deliberation, collaborative research, and joint public statements on the challenges facing families and civil society. In all of its work, the Institute seeks to bring fresh analyses and new research to the attention of policy makers in government, opinion makers in the media, and decision makers in the private sector.

For more information:

The National Marriage Project

University of Virginia

P.O. Box 400766

Charlottesville, VA 22904-4766

(434) 982-4509

marriage@virginia.edu

http://www.virginia.edu/marriageproject/