@article{90774b33f97c4e80905eb841d4640d6d,
title = "U.S. Social Policy and Family Complexity",
abstract = "The United States has a number of social policies that were designed explicitly to provide options and supports for individuals related to their family formation decisions, such as the Title X National Family Planning Program and the Healthy Marriage Initiative. At the same time, because social policies can have considerable implications for the populations they target, we have long known that government policy can impact family structure and individuals' fertility decisions even when such an impact was not the policy's stated objective. This article reviews both theoretical and empirical literature asking to what extent United States' social policy affects the complexity of families. Specifically, we review the literature on divorce and custody laws, means-tested transfer programs, and policies designed to provide information and services related to family formation. We report findings, and discuss common themes across the literature and identify important gaps in knowledge.",
keywords = "family complexity, social policy",
author = "Lopoo, {Leonard M.} and Raissian, {Kerri M.}",
note = "Funding Information: The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) allocated $150 million annually for five years to fund healthy marriage promotion activities and responsible fatherhood grants to organizations throughout the United States. In 2006, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance selected 226 grantees to implement the DRA healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood activities at the local level and funded three multiyear, multisite evaluations (). Two of the programs, Building Strong Families (BSF) and Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM), targeted low-income couples and used curricula designed to improve relationship quality and to promote and sustain healthy marriages. ACF also funded community-wide organizations to increase awareness of the benefits of marriage, and ACF provided a grant to evaluate the funded Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI). Researchers from Mathematica Policy Research asked if BSF increased the likelihood that unwed, biological parents would marry, improved father involvement and coparenting, increased economic well-being, and reduced intimate partner violence. Results from the BSF evaluation largely show no impact at 15 months and at 36 months (; ). The SHM program had small positive impacts on a number of relationship measures, such as marital happiness, support, and positive communication, but it did not have a statistically significant impact on the likelihood of remaining married one year after program completion (). In general, the CHMI evaluation found there were no impacts of these community-based interventions in terms of romantic relationships or marriage; nor was there a change in relationship quality, infidelity, or violence levels for any of the sites (). ",
year = "2014",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1177/0002716214530372",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "654",
pages = "213--230",
journal = "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science",
issn = "0002-7162",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Inc.",
number = "1",
}