Marriage Works USA

Support CFOC

While the power of Marriage Works’ message is undeniable, the campaign’s success hinges on its being seen by as many teens as possible — as often as possible. That’s where you come in.

With your financial support, we can spread the message farther and faster. Together, we can teach more young people about the long-lasting, far-reaching benefits of marriage - benefits that affect the married couple, their children, their families, and society at large.

To make a tax-deductible contribution to Marriage Works, a non-profit 501(3)(c) organization, please click here. We thank you in advance for assisting us in this worthy, important cause.

Marriage Works USA

Media

Here are the materials that comprise the heart of Marriage Works: simple, powerful statements of the benefits of marriage. All of these materials are available for purchase and use. For details and pricing, please contact Donna Sawers at 410-576-9015

Click here to see our advertising at work.

Television & Radio

Click the image below to view the Marriage Works TV and radio commercials (requires Flash). To view a handful of the dozens of commercials created by Campaign For Our Children since its inception in 1987, please click here.

Marriage Works Media Player

Bus King

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Billboards

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Bus Shelters

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For details and pricing, please contact CFOC at 410-576-9015.


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Marriage Works USA

Resources

Many additional organizations promote the benefits of marriage, using a variety of approaches. Here are just a few…

Campaign For Our Children
link: http://www.cfoc.org

CDC Marriage & Divorce Statistics
link: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/mardiv.htm

Center for Law and Social Policy
link: http://www.clasp.org

Child Trends
link: http://www.childtrends.org

How Marriage Works
link: http://www.howmarriageworks.com

Institute for American Values
link: http://www.americanvalues.org

Family Dynamics
link: http://www.familydynamics.net/benefitsofhealthymarriages.htm

Family Research Council
link: http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF03J02

The Heritage Foundation
link: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Family/HL-804.cfm

Marriage Savers
link: www.marriagesavers.org

National Council on Family Relations
link: http://www.ncfr.org

National Marriage Project
link: http://www.marriage.rutgers.edu

U.S. Census
link: http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/healthymarriage

Lesson Plan

Campaign For Our Children has developed a Lesson Plan that is available for $20 by emailing Donna Sawers at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or calling her at 410-576-9015.

Why Marriage Works Brochure (PDF Format)

Marriage Works Brochure

The History of Marriage

Stephanie Coontz teaches history at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and is the author of Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage.

Download the Great Expectations Article in PDF Format

Teenage Childbearing and Marriage

Teenage Childbearing and Marriage Document

Overheard on the Web

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff.  Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
—Alan, age 10

No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
—Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
—Camille, age 10

No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
—Freddie, age 6 (very wise for his age)

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
—Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

Both don’t want any more kids.
—Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
—Lynnette, age 8 (isn’t she a treasure?)

On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
—Martin, age 10

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

I’d run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
—Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

When they’re rich.
—Pam, age 7

The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.
—Curt, age 7

The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It’s the right thing to do.
—Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

I don’t know which is better, but I’ll tell you one thing. I’m never going to have sex with my wife. I don’t want to be all grossed out.
—Theodore, age 8

It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
—Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN’T GET MARRIED?

There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there?
—Kelvin, age 8

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
—Ricky, age 10

Marriage Works USA

Research

The Marriage Works campaign recognizes that the benefits of marriage have been quantified through decades of research. We’ve merely distilled these benefits into clear, simple messages that teens can grasp instantly. For example:

Paul R. Amato and Danielle DeBoer, 2001. “The Transmission of Marital Instability Across Generations: Relationship Skills or Commitment to Marriage?” Journal of Marriage and the Family 63 (4) November.

Ronald Angel and Jacqueline Worobey, 1988. “Single Motherhood and Children’s Health,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 29: 38-52.

Suzanne Bianchi, 1999. “The Gender Gap in the Economic Well Being of Nonresident Fathers and Custodial Mothers,” Demography 36: 195-203.

Rebecca Blank, 1997. It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).

C. Cornwell and P. Rupert, 1997. “Unobservable Individual Effects: Marriage and the Earnings of Young Men,” Economic Inquiry 35 (2): 285-294.

Kingsley Davis (ed.) Contemporary Marriage: Comparative Perspectives on a Changing Institution (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).

Jeffrey Gray and Michael Vanderhart, 2000. “The Determination of Wages: Does Marriage Matter?” Linda J. Waite et al. (eds.) The Ties that Bind: Perspectives on Marriage and Cohabitation (New York: Aldine De Grutyer): 356-367.

Donna Gunther and Madeline Zavodny, 2001. “Is the Male Marriage Premium Due to Selection? The Effect of Shotgun Weddings on the Return to Marriage,” Journal of Population Economics 14: 313-328.

E. Marvis Hetherington and John Kelly, 2002. For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered (New York: W.W. Norton): 240-47.

Jane Mauldon, 1990, “The Effects of Marital Disruption on Children’s Health,” Demography 27: 431-446.

Sara McLanahan, 2000. “Family, State, and Child Well-Being,” Annual Review of Sociology 26 (1).

Mark Rank and Thomas Hirschl, 1999. “The Economic Risk of Childhood in America: Estimating the Probability of Poverty Across the Formative Years,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61.

Catherine Ross and John Mirowsky, 1999. “Parental Divorce, Life-Course Disruption, and Adult Depression,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61(4) November

Schoenborn CA. Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002 Advance data from vital and health statistics; no. 351. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2004

Pamela Smock, et al., 1999. “The Effect of Marriage and Divorce on Women’s Economic Well-Being,” American Sociological Review 64: 794-812.

On the Web

James G. Lakely, 2005, Bush hands first lady reins for youth project, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

Marriage Works USA

Since 1987, Campaign For Our Children (CFOC) has created compelling programs to lower teen pregnancy rates throughout the United States. Through comprehensive abstinence-plus education, school lesson plans and powerful advertising, CFOC has helped change attitudes among children - with measurable results.

 

Now CFOC is targeting the attitudes of teens aged 15 to 19 with a bold new program, aimed at promoting one of the world’s most cherished institutions: marriage.

The campaign’s core message is a practical, added-value approach that can be summed up in just two words: Marriage Works.

This is a natural progression in the work of CFOC. Teenage childbearing is associated with many unfavorable consequences for teen mothers, their families and children.  Research suggests that children do best when two parents who have a healthy marriage raise them.  Assisting teenagers to reach adulthood before childbearing would help more children grow up in families with healthy marriages – and improve the well being of their children.

Using available research - and there’s plenty of it - we explain the benefits of marriage in fact-based, no-nonsense ways that teens and adults can understand and respond to. And as the facts demonstrate, the benefits of marriage are compelling and far-reaching.

With focused, persuasive television and radio commercials, billboards, bus shelter ads and a web presence, Marriage Works drives home the practical benefits of matrimony.

To view the Marriage Works materials (and learn how you can use them) click the Media button. To explore the research supporting the campaign’s premise, click the Research button. Other pro-marriage programs can be found in our Resources section. For News coverage of the campaign, check out our News section.

As powerful as the campaign’s message is, its success hinges on its being seen by as many teens as possible - as often as possible. To learn how you can help, please click the Support button.