Marriage and Divorce

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Abortion Is Power

The Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will affect much more than women's access to abortions. Abortions allowed women to escape abusive and even deadly relationships. Now that door is closing, state by state.

Kathryn A. Edwards

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A Peacekeeping Operation in Ukraine, Synthetic Opioids, Geoengineering: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on why it may be time to consider a peacekeeping operation in northern Ukraine, supporting veterans with traumatic brain injury, a new response to synthetic opioids, and more.

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The Marriage Plot

For more than a quarter century, the U.S. government has been sending an unmistakable message to poor, single mothers: Get married. If America genuinely wants to address poverty and achieve gender equality, this has to change.

Kathryn A. Edwards

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Is Sleeping in Separate Beds Bad for Your Relationship? A Sleep Scientist Answers

Sleep occupies about one-third of our lives, and there isn't a one-size-fits all sleeping strategy for all couples. That said, all couples should make sleep a priority—for both of them. That could mean sleeping apart.

Wendy M. Troxel @wendytroxel

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Debunking 5 Myths of Sleeping Together

About a third of American adults choose not to sleep with their partner, and evidence suggests that their ranks are growing. This decision often results in social stigma, including some dubious assumptions that sleeping apart is a sign of a sexless or otherwise unhappy marriage.

Wendy M. Troxel @wendytroxel

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The Impact of Deployments on Military Marriages

The evidence linking combat deployments directly to poorer marital functioning has been sparse and contradictory. Although marital satisfaction among military couples declined from 2003 to 2009, the divorce rate among them remained steady.

Thomas E. Trail @TomETrail

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'In the Deployment Life Study, I Saw My Own Family'

RAND's Deployment Life Study was designed to examine how deployment affects the health and well-being of military families. M.M. Smith, an active-duty military spouse, offers her response to the study.

M. M. Smith

essay

The Resilience of Military Families

Deployment of a spouse and parent can shake a military family to its core. But according to RAND research, these families display remarkable resilience.

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Study Finds Most Military Families Are Resilient in Face of Deployment

Despite the fact that service members, spouses, and their children experience frequent deployments to combat zones throughout the world, a recent study of more than 2,700 military families found that they generally fare well and adapt effectively to the stresses of deployment.

Sarah O. Meadows @SarahOMeadows, Benjamin Karney

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UK and Europe Are Behind the Times for Single Mothers and Their Children

Single parents head 10.4 percent of households with children across Europe — 20.4 percent in the UK — and the socioeconomic gap between single- and two-parent households continues to grow. Accessible and flexible work policies are needed to improve employment conditions for single parents, especially mothers.

Chloe E. Bird @ChloeBirdPhD, Kai Ruggeri

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Gay Marriage Gains Support, but It's Still a Partisan Issue

Survey data provides evidence that the majority of American voters support the legalization of gay marriage and think it should be decided at the federal level. Republicans are substantially less likely to support legalization, and lower income, lower educational attainment, being older, and being non-white are significantly associated with lower levels of support.

Katherine Grace Carman @KGCarman, Michael S. Pollard @MichaelSPollard

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Are Youth Putting Off Marriage Because of Their Student Loan Debt?

Women with higher loan balances may be less likely to get married than their peers with lower or no loan balances. But as time goes on, young adults adjust to their post-college financial situation and eventually get promotions, earn raises, obtain other assets, and get married.

Robert Bozick

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Some Tired Myths About Sleeping with Your Valentine, or Not

Two-thirds of U.S. adults report that they regularly sleep with a partner. Yet, through 60 years or so of sleep research, scientists have tended to view sleep as an individual behavior, largely ignoring the potential impact of bedmates.

Wendy M. Troxel @wendytroxel