IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v39y2018i3d10.1007_s10834-018-9565-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economic Benefits of Marriage and Family Strengthening Programs

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen R. Shamblen

    (Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation - Louisville Center)

  • Andrew Gluck

    (Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation - Louisville Center
    Social Capital Valuations, LLC)

  • William Wubbenhorst

    (Social Capital Valuations, LLC)

  • David A. Collins

    (Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation - Louisville Center)

Abstract

Marriage and family strengthening programs have historically had small magnitude effects on changing relationship outcomes. The present study explores the possibility that although these statistical effects are small, they can be shown to represent meaningful financial impacts. Secondary data from 2092 control and 2042 intervention couples who were married with children and participating in the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) project were analyzed. Intervention participants had the opportunity to receive standardized curricula (e.g., PREP) and marital counseling. Similar to meta-analytic findings, conventional analysis of these data found only a modest impact on proximal relationship outcomes (e.g., satisfaction). Offering counseling in conjunction with curricula, although costlier and only demonstrating marginally significant improvements in averting divorce, appears to offer a substantial financial return on investment. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen R. Shamblen & Andrew Gluck & William Wubbenhorst & David A. Collins, 2018. "The Economic Benefits of Marriage and Family Strengthening Programs," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 386-404, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:39:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10834-018-9565-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10834-018-9565-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10834-018-9565-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10834-018-9565-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert G. Wood & Quinn Moore & Andrew Clarkwest & Alexandra Killewald, "undated". "The Long-Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Program for Unmarried Parents," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 3ce2a1ad000e4df09fb94b434, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. repec:mpr:mprres:7578 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    4. repec:mpr:mprres:7579 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Robert G. Wood & Quinn Moore & Andrew Clarkwest & Alexandra Killewald & Shannon Monahan, "undated". "The Long-Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Relationship Skills Education Program (Executive Summary)," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6f1c3be7ce9f4d7cbeedf3a4a, Mathematica Policy Research.
    6. repec:mpr:mprres:7580 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. David G. Schramm, 2006. "Individual and Social Costs of Divorce in Utah," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 133-151, April.
    8. Quinn Moore & Robert G. Wood & Andrew Clarkwest & Alexandra Killewald & Shannon Monahan, "undated". "The Long-Term Effects of Building Strong Families: A Relationship Skills Education Program (Technical Supplement)," Mathematica Policy Research Reports bb8635c74c6d4f73b84bb124a, Mathematica Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rajko Tomaš, 2022. "Measurement of the Concentration of Potential Quality of Life in Local Communities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 79-109, August.
    2. Jeffrey Dew, 2021. "Ten Years of Marriage and Cohabitation Research in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 52-61, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert G. Wood & Reginald Covington, "undated". "Limited Father Involvement: Which Families Are Most at Risk?," Mathematica Policy Research Reports ef6798aee7c142ce937816279, Mathematica Policy Research.
    2. Robert G. Wood & Brian Goesling & Diane Paulsell, "undated". "Design for an Impact Study of Five Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Programs and Strategies," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 01852acb9cbb4dd9afd6bc7cb, Mathematica Policy Research.
    3. repec:mpr:mprres:8150 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Lehrer, Evelyn L. & Son, Yeon Jeong, 2017. "Marital Instability in the United States: Trends, Driving Forces, and Implications for Children," IZA Discussion Papers 10503, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Christina Gibson-Davis & Anna Gassman-Pines & Rebecca Lehrman, 2018. "“His” and “Hers”: Meeting the Economic Bar to Marriage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2321-2343, December.
    6. Lee, Shawna J. & Pace, Garrett T. & Lee, Joyce Y. & Knauer, Heather, 2018. "The association of fathers' parental warmth and parenting stress to child behavior problems," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1-10.
    7. Darima Fotheringham & Michael A. Wiles, 2023. "The effect of implementing chatbot customer service on stock returns: an event study analysis," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 802-822, July.
    8. Song, Wei-Ling & Uzmanoglu, Cihan, 2016. "TARP announcement, bank health, and borrowers’ credit risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 22-32.
    9. Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez, 2013. "Efectos de los ingresos no reportados en el nivel y tendencia de la pobreza laboral en México," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(2), pages 23-54, November.
    10. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    11. Campbell, Randall C. & Nagel, Gregory L., 2016. "Private information and limitations of Heckman's estimator in banking and corporate finance research," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 186-195.
    12. Leye Li & Louise Yi Lu & Dongyue Wang, 2022. "External labour market competitions and stock price crash risk: evidence from exposures to competitor CEOs’ award‐winning events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1421-1460, April.
    13. Calcagno, R. & Renneboog, L.D.R., 2004. "Capital Structure and Managerial Compensation : The Effects of Renumeration Seniority," Discussion Paper 2004-120, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    14. Son K. Lam & Thomas E. DeCarlo & Ashish Sharma, 2019. "Salesperson ambidexterity in customer engagement: do customer base characteristics matter?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 659-680, July.
    15. McCausland, David & Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2005. "Some are Punished and Some are Rewarded: A Study of the Impact of Performance Pay on Job Satisfaction," MPRA Paper 14243, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Gary F. Peters & Andrea M. Romi & Juan Manuel Sanchez, 2019. "The Influence of Corporate Sustainability Officers on Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 1065-1087, November.
    17. Fossen, Frank M. & König, Johannes, 2015. "Public health insurance and entry into self-employment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112934, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Li, Chunyu & Lou, Chenxin & Luo, Dan & Xing, Kai, 2021. "Chinese corporate distress prediction using LASSO: The role of earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Fernando Rios-Avila & Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, 2018. "Standard-error correction in two-stage optimization models: A quasi–maximum likelihood estimation approach," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 18(1), pages 206-222, March.
    20. Brian H. Boyer & Taylor D. Nadauld & Keith P. Vorkink & Michael S. Weisbach, 2023. "Discount‐Rate Risk in Private Equity: Evidence from Secondary Market Transactions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 835-885, April.
    21. Kadreva, Olga, 2016. "The influence of quantity and age of children on working women’ salaries," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 41, pages 62-77.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:39:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10834-018-9565-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.