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The NCMR takes an innovative, cross-cutting approach that integrates sociological, psychological,
developmental, economic, and demographic perspectives to:
• address key research questions on the relationship between family structure and adult and
child wellbeing, the role of family processes and resources, the formation and maintenance of
healthy marriages, adolescents’ transitions into healthy marriage in adulthood, pathways to family
formation outside of marriage, comparisons between married and unmarried families, and the roles
of marriage education programs (including faith-based organizations);
• establish a strong network of multi-disciplinary scholars who focus their research on marriage
and family structure by conducting seminars and conferences, running small grants competitions,
and developing visiting scholar and postdoctoral programs;
• develop and train future researchers whose work focuses on marriage and family structure
by mentoring junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and
graduate assistants.
• improve research methods and data to permit a fuller understanding of the effects of family
structure in various domains across the life span by producing a marriage policy database,
a marriage and divorce levels database, marriage and family structure measurement guidelines,
pilot survey data, and data
workshops; and
• actively disseminate research findings through a dedicated web site, research briefs,
conference proceedings, news releases, and targeted e-mail to the policy and research communities
as well as program practitioners. The NCMR will coordinate closely with ACF’s Healthy Marriage
Resource Center, particularly around communication with marriage program practitioners.
Wendy Manning and Susan Brown co-direct the NCMR at Bowling Green State University.
ASPE and Bowling Green jointly fund the NCMR.
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