Institute for Family Studies

Happy Father's Day! Check out this wonderful post on the role of fathers in the home from IFS senior fellow Dr. Jason Carroll.

We Need Dads More Than Ever Research based on observations of mothers’ and fathers’ different psychological dispositions and behaviors in parenting has consistently found that both mothers and fathers influence multiple aspects of child development, but they do so through different processes. These studies show that father...

Happy Memorial Day!

Understanding and addressing those obstacles on the path to marriage ought to be a joint project of Left and Right, something we all care about.

Click the image below to read more from Ivana Greco:

Marriage Should Not Be the Elephant in the Room Both of us are well-versed in the challenges of raising children. Between us, we collectively have nine kids. Without our respective husbands, it would be a much more daunting task, both for Amber raising her six children in Ohio, and for Ivana with her three kids in Connecticut. It’s very hard to...

America has long been described as a land of opportunity. It should come as no surprise, then, that the American public has traditionally been enamored with an idea that taps into this ethos—that of the “American Dream.”

Click the image below to read more from Bryant Lee:

How Married Couples Perceive the American Dream America has long been described as a land of opportunity. It should come as no surprise, then, that the American public has traditionally been enamored with an idea that taps into this ethos—that of the “American Dream.” A popular interpretation of the dream holds that “[anyone] in the Unite...

For most men who marry today, it looks like a good deal: more money, more s*x, better health, a longer life, and much more happiness.

Click the image below to read more from Brad Wilcox:

No, Marriage Isn't a Death Sentence for Men Marriage is a terrible deal for men. This is the message we’re getting from the Red Pill Right, right-leaning online influencers who cater to men, especially teenagers and men who have had bad luck or no luck with the opposite s*x when it comes to love or marriage.

Becoming verbal is not innate but rather a skill children acquire through interactions with their primary caregivers.

Click the image below to read more from Erica Komisar:

Screen Time and Language Development Becoming verbal is not innate but rather a skill children acquire through interactions with their primary caregivers. Parents who engage in conversation and reading with their children foster language development. When parents actively listen to their children and show genuine interest in their thou...

Regardless of one’s stance on surrogacy, we should be able to agree that we need more data and reporting requirements to enable researchers to assess the impact of surrogacy contracts on the well-being of children.

Click the image below to read more from Emma Waters:

Inconclusive: The Research on Surrogacy's Impact on Children Olivia Maurel was 30 years old when an ancestry DNA test confirmed what she had known all along: she is the product of a costly commercial surrogacy contract. In Olivia’s case, the woman that her parents paid to gestate and birth Olivia is also her biological mother. In a recent article with Daily...

Today’s girls and young women are in desperate need of authentic and inspiring stories that encourage them to strive to be their best and boldest selves.

Click the image below to read more from Ashley McGuire:

5 Classic Films With Strong Female Leads to Inspire Girls Recently, my daughter and I began watching Gone with the Wind. This was the latest film choice in a trend in my family towards classics that I documented in a piece here. I argued that the older cinematic greats are wonderful choices for families seeking to make entertainment more than just passive,...

While it may be that the rich will always be able to afford more children, social engineering that seeks to eradicate s*x differences in work behavior, and policies that increase the costs of schooling, healthcare, and family housing, will only exacerbate this trend.

Click the image below to read more from Rosemary L. Hopcroft:

More Babies For the Rich? The Relationship Between Status and Children Is Changing The rich countries of the world are not reproducing themselves. A total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.1 (the number of children the average woman will have in her lifetime) is considered replacement fertility. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the TFR in the United States in 2...

What we are striving for is nothing less than the heart and soul of America’s children.

Click the image below to read more from Adam Candeub, Clare Morell, and Michael Toscano:

Vindication for Age Verification by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals On March 8, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a Texas law requiring age verification measures to guard the state’s kids from po*******hy sites. The decision is a major win for the children of the Lone Star State. It also represents a vindication of the policy work of sch...

Children’s mental health issues are not isolated, arbitrary, or disconnected from their parents but are often the result of the misguided or neglectful or sometimes abusive relationships children have with their mothers and fathers.

Read more from Erica Komisar:

What Responsibility Do Parents Have For Their Children's Mental Health? The recent verdict in the Ethan Crumbly case, where his mother, Jennifer, became the “first parent to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child,” sets a legal precedent that should have been set long ago. The neglect of both Crumbly parents regarding their child...

When a man makes a woman feel protected, she sees it as a sign that she will likely feel safe with him in all aspects of the relationship, should it continue.

Read more from Melanie Notkin:

Even in 2024, Women Are Still Looking for a Protective Man Protectiveness is a sign of masculinity, and whether or not progressive young women today will admit it, both masculinity in general—and protectiveness in particular—are very attractive in a mate—even in 2024. And it’s something Brad Wilcox says women appreciate in a husband. In the State of...

The benefits of marriage for individuals and society are considerable, and thus the costs of falling marriage are, too.

Read more from Lyman Stone:

1-in-3: A Record Share of Young Adults Will Never Marry In 1967, about 85% of 25-year-old women had ever married, along with 75% of 25-year-old men. This was the height of the Baby Boom years. Unfortunately, these marriages also ended up having the highest divorce rates observed in American history. But those rates were also unusual: in 1920, just 70% of...

The data tells us that Americans who regularly attend church are between about 30 and 50 percent less likely to divorce. They are also about 15 percentage points more likely to say they are happily married, compared to secular couples.

Read more from Brad Wilcox:

Want To Slash Your Risk For Divorce? Start Going To Church Faith is bad for families. That is often the message that comes out of our pop culture, corporate media, and social media. A Daily Beast headline tells us “Religious Kids are Jerks.” The Nation asks, “Is Conservative Christianity Bad for Marriage?” and offers this answer: “Research Says Ye...

The dominant problems in our society are not primarily material. They are relational. The solution is to form and create the most durable relational bonds known to mankind—the marriage kind. The parenthood kind.

Read more from Katy Faust:

Get Married. Then, Get Pregnant At the age of 34, I was a stay-at-home mom with four young kids living in one of the nation's most expensive cities. I had left a job I loved at age 25 to devote myself full-time to our family of now-six living on a pastor’s salary. Not only was I always tired and sometimes stressed, things were f...

We will all benefit from helping the rising generation broaden and deepen their thinking about love and what a good marriage is, and, most importantly, how such marriages come to be.

Read more from Adam M. Galovan:

"So, on Valentine’s Day, if you’re married, for your own sake — and, indeed, the sake of our civilization — I urge you to find new ways to honor your commitment to love and cherish your spouse and any children you may have all the days of your life. "

Read more from Brad Wilcox:

The Secrets to Marriage Mastery Everyone wants to know the surefire secret to success at love and marriage. That’s why the local Barnes & Noble aisle on relationships is packed with books full of tips on how to win at love. One of the better offerings in this department is psychologist John Gottman’s bestselling book, “The R...

Isn’t marriage a trap, mostly for men? Don’t most married couples end up getting divorced? And aren’t most men happier when they’re single?

Read how Brad Wilcox answers these questions:

Why You Should Get Married Isn’t marriage a trap, mostly for men? Don’t most married couples end up getting divorced? And aren’t most men happier when they’re single? These are the kind of questions I get from young men whenever I make the case for marriage at speaking events at colleges and high schools across the na...

Here are six main findings from Brad Wilcox's new book, "Get Married," that spotlight the value of marriage for men, women, and children and the path to forging a strong, stable, and happy union in twenty-first century America.

6 Reasons to Get and Stay Married Here are six main findings from my new book, Get Married, that spotlight the value of marriage for men, women, and children and the path to forging a strong, stable, and happy union in twenty-first century America.

Join us in celebrating National Marriage Week!

Follow this link to the 2024 toolkit:
https://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/tool-kit

Taylor Swift’s hit song “Lover” is the perfect anthem for this Valentine’s Day, especially since she is in the midst of a very public romance with her latest boyfriend, Travis Kelce. “There’s a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you,” she sings to her “magnetic force of a man.”

Read more from Brad Wilcox's WSJ article:

Don't Buy the Soulmate Myth For couples planning to get married, Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular moments to pop the question—for turning a romantic relationship into a “forever and ever” thing. But if you aim to put a ring on it, or have already tied the knot, it’s worth reflecting on the model of love and...

"At least since humans could read and write and likely earlier still, people have debated the merits of marriage."

Read more from Jonathan Rothwell

Married People Are Living Their Best Lives Comparing across relationship status, adults who are married are by far the happiest, as measured by how they evaluate their current and future life. In 2023, married adults ages 25 to 50 are 17 percentage points more likely to be thriving than adults who never married, up from 12 percentage points....

IFS senior fellow Brad Wilcox new book is featured in the National Marriage Week USA toolkit. It's out Feb. 13!

Check out the Marriage Week USA's toolkit for great resources, including Brad Wilcox's new book, Get Married.
https://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/tool-kit
National Marriage Week USA

Join us in celebrating National Marriage Week!

Follow the link to learn how you can get involved:
https://www.nationalmarriageweekusa.org/tool-kit

"And while there may yet be new ways to foster connection, billions of humans over thousands of years have already figured out one thing that works really well: Families, and the villages they can become."

Read more from Jim Dalrymple:

Instead of Endless Government Programs, We Need to Rebuild Our Villages There’s a familiar story that comes up again and again in news articles about parenting: Once upon a time, people lived in communities in which they mutually supported each other. But these communities, often literal villages, have lately disappeared, making life needlessly difficult. And so we ne...

"This evidence further suggests that polyamory is likely to leave a huge amount of personal chaos, misery, and family ruin in its wake."

Read more from Rosemary L. Hopcroft:

The Problem With Polyamory: A Social Scientific View As Kay Hymowitz and Ashley McGuire have both noted in this space, polyamory is having a moment. There is the attention being paid to Molly Roden Winter’s book More, and New York Magazine recently had a “practical guide” to ethical non-monogamy as its cover feature. But support for polyamory is...

"But, if liberty is the ultimate goal, then safety is the right place to start"

Read more from Michael Toscano:

It's Time to Pass the Kids Online Safety Act At one pivotal point in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s January 31 hearing on the s*xual exploitation of children online, GOP Sen. Josh Hawley challenged Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, to stand up, turn around, and apologize to all the parents packing the audience. Zuckerberg did—and as he turne...

Why are there so few happy families on prestige television?

Read what Rob Henderson thinks:

S*x, Drugs, and Family Conflict Appeal More to Elites Than to Ordinary Moviegoers Why are there so few happy families on prestige television? As I’ve written before, I’ve watched a lot of it. Spoilers ahead. The fourth season of The Sopranos portrays the collapse of Tony and Carmela’s marriage. The fight in the finale between them showcases the immense talent of the actors....

GIVEAWAY!!!

Enter to win a copy of Brad Wilcox's new book, "Get Married."

Giveaway ends February 13, 2024.

Book giveaway for Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox Feb 01-Feb 13, 2024 Enter to win one of 10 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Feb 01-Feb 13, 2024. University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox explains how our ru...