The study comes after decades of controversy surrounding the Black family. For years, intellectuals have debated the importance of marriage and “family breakdown” for Black Americans, but have generally lacked a comprehensive, data-based understanding of the consequences of marriage for African Americans. The new report begins to fill that knowledge gap.
Findings
* One major finding of the study is that marriage seems to be highly beneficial for African American males throughout the life course. For example, when African American boys live with their father in the home, particularly their married father, they typically receive substantially more parental support. As a result of this better parenting, African American boys with married parents are markedly less likely to become delinquent and they also tend to do better in school. In adulthood, marriage is associated with a range of better outcomes for African American men, from $4,000 increases in wages to greater happiness with family life.
* African American females also appear to derive very important benefits from marriage, but these apparent benefits are smaller than those for males.
* Another striking finding is that marriage is profoundly important to the economic well-being of Black families. Study after study consistently concludes that marriage is one of the strongest determinants of economic status for Black Americans, and can often mean the difference between living above or below the poverty line – especially for families with children. Why? Because marriage often means the addition of a second income to the household and it also tends to make adults more productive, successful workers.
Importantly, these marriage benefits appear to be quite strong and significant even when studies control for other variables that may commonly affect marital status and the outcome variables and even when studies use longitudinal analysis. The evidence is therefore strong that marriage typically brings important benefits to African Americans.
