Strengthening Relationships Among Unwed Parents¹

Donna Davis²

For many, Mendhelssohn's "Wedding March" conjures up a host of emotions. Yet many young people today are making the leap to family without the formality of a wedding or marriage. Consider these statistics: Although the majority of Americans still agree with the concept of marriage as an ideal, one-third of all births in the U.S. are to unmarried women. Additionally, as a result of divorce and the unstable but growing trend in cohabitation, less than 25% of children today live with both of their biological parents.

Research shows that the decline of marriage and the increase of nonmarital childbearing may result in serious consequences for children. There is also substantial evidence that children in single-parent families are generally at greater risk for poor behavioral, health, and academic outcomes. They are also much more likely to live in poverty than children raised by their married biological parents.

These statistics are key motivators behind the Building Strong Families project, one of many government-funded initiatives designed to improve child well-being. This project evaluates the effectiveness and suggests improved methods for programs and services that are currently helping unwed parents enter healthy marriages or help them maintain positive relationships that benefit their children. For more information on this project, check out their web site at http://www.buildingstrongfamilies.info.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our Web site at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/229.mp3

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/229.wav

---

Footnotes

1. This document is FAR0002, one of a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published November 2007. In the interest of time or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2. Donna Davis, Senior Producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Reviewed by Suzanna Smith, associate professor, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, University of Florida, and Executive Producer, Family Album Radio.

---

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry Arrington, Dean.