THIS VALENTINE’S DAY, GIVE YOUR WIFE A PRIZED GIFT:  AN ATTENTIVE HUSBAND

NEW REPORT FINDS THAT MOTHERS OF LARGE FAMILIES ARE AMONG THE HAPPIEST WIVES, IN PART BECAUSE THEIR HUSBANDS ARE MORE ATTENTIVE

New York, NY—February 2, 2012—According to a report recently released by The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, in partnership with the Center for Marriage and Families, the parents of large families are at least 40 percent more likely to be happily married than the parents of smaller families. The State of Our Unions: When Baby Makes Three—How Parenthood Makes Life Meaningful and How Marriage Makes Parenthood Bearable, focuses on the emotional wellbeing of parents and reveals the fascinating—and perhaps surprising—results of a recent Survey of Marital Generosity.

Who are America’s happiest families? And why are they happier?

• Parents of large families are about twice as likely to attend church, synagogue, or mosque on a weekly basis or more often, and to reap the added social support they find there.

• Parents of large families—especially mothers—are more likely to strongly agree that “my life has an important purpose,” compared to their married peers with smaller families or no children.

The Survey of Marital Generosity suggests that mothers and fathers of large families are happier in part because they find more meaning in life, receive more support from friends who share their faith, and have a stronger religious faith than their peers with smaller families.

“Given the religious meaning, social support, and normative importance attached to marriage by men in many religious communities, it appears that part of the explanation for the greater happiness of mothers with large numbers of children is that such women benefit from having particularly attentive husbands,” said W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia, director of the National Marriage Project and lead author of the report. “The Survey of Marital Generosity indicates that these husbands are more likely to engage in regular acts of generosity—such as making coffee in the morning for their wives or frequently expressing affection—and to spend more quality time with their spouses compared to other husbands.”

Not all of us wish to or can hope to have a large family. But these mega-moms and dads who combine happy, lasting marriages with active childrearing have something to teach us all.

THE REPORT presents results from a new, nationally representative survey of 1,630 young married couples: “The Survey of Marital Generosity,” conducted by Knowledge Networks in December of 2010 and January of 2011 and funded by the Science of Generosity initiative at the University of Notre Dame. The report also relies on new analyses of nationally representative data from the General Social Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. It responds to three questions: Is it emotionally easier to parent alone in a world in which a good marriage seems increasingly out of reach? Is parenthood itself an obstacle to a good marriage? What are the social, cultural, and relational sources of marital success among today’s parents?

THE NATIONAL MARRIAGE PROJECT is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, and interdisciplinary initiative based at the University of Virginia and founded in 1997 at Rutgers University. The Project’s mission is to provide research and analysis on the health of marriage in America, to analyze the social and cultural forces shaping contemporary marriage, and to identify strategies to increase marital quality and stability. Directed by W. Bradford Wilcox, an associate professor of sociology at the university, its publications include the annual The State of Our Unions report.

THE CENTER FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILIES is located at the Institute for American Values, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to strengthening families and civil society in the U.S. and the world. Directed by Elizabeth Marquardt, the Center’s mission is to increase the proportion of U.S. children growing up with their two married parents. At the Center’s website, FamilyScholars.org, bloggers include emerging voices and senior scholars with distinctive expertise and points of view tackling today’s key debates on the family.

WHEN BABY MAKES THREE, the 2011 issue of The State of Our Unions, is part of the “Nest and Nest-egg Initiative,” a multi-year inquiry by the Institute for American Values, supported by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, into the prudential values and institutions that are essential to sustaining a secure and thriving American middle class.

For more information about this report, or to schedule an interview with W. Bradford Wilcox or Elizabeth Marquardt, please contact David Lapp at 212-246-3942 or dlapp@americanvalues.org.

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CONTACT:
David Lapp  
dlapp@americanvalues.org                                         
                               

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