Systematic Review of the Impact of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Programs on Parental Marriage Rates

Background/Purpose/Research Question: Three of the four TANF goals are to support two-parent formation. In 2005, Congress allocated $150 million annually to support these goals. Thus far, Congress has spent $1.8 billion on Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs. This paper will evaluate the effectiveness of these programs on promoting marriage.

Method: We conducted a systematic review of the literature examining the impact of this program on parental marriage rates of low-income families. We searched for articles and study reports on PsycInfo, Google Scholar, General Accounting Office, Urban Institute, Mathematica, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, and U.S. Congressional Research Service Report databases using search terms including “two-parent families”, “two-parent family formation”, “faith-based initiatives”, “marriage initiatives”, “marriage promotion”, “healthy marriage”, and “fatherhood initiatives”. We found eight related materials, seven of which were government or agency reports. Five studies analyzed the program goals but did not examine outcomes. Two studies were randomized control studies in which one group received the benefits of the program while the other group did not. A third study was quasi-experimental in nature.

Results: These studies have followed at least over 11,000 low-income couples at multiple sites using randomized control. Couples who did not partake in Building Strong Families (BSF) programs were just as likely as couples who did to be married after fifteen months, illustrating that BSF was not effective in improving marriage rates. Another study also found that these programs did not improve the probability that couples would be married twelve months after the programs ended. Studies found conflicting results about the programs’ effects on abuse and marriage satisfaction. One study found that programs helped to decrease abuse and promote healthy communication and overall higher levels of satisfaction in relationships, whereas another study did not find BSF programs to have significant impact on marriage satisfaction or likelihood of abuse. Lastly, a study found that Health and Human Resources office does not have objective criteria to determine Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs’ effectiveness.

Implications: After over a decade of implementing Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs, no research has found marriage promotion to be successful. These programs do not encourage couples to remain romantically involved in the case of abuse. Recent research found that unmarried mothers experience abuse twice as often as married mothers, suggesting that Healthy Marriages and Responsible Fatherhood programs cannot help a large proportion of low-income families. In 2011, the Obama administration took funds away from marriage promotion and towards fatherhood initiatives. Since then, each program has received $75 million, which has taken $25 million in funds annually from programs focused exclusively on marriage promotion. This shift in funding, along with the lack of evidence that Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs increase the number of couples married, suggests that the $150 million spent annually on Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs would be better spent elsewhere.