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Marriage and Divorce

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Marriage and divorce affect not only individuals and families but also societies and economies. RAND research related to marriage and divorce includes studies on family planning and fertility, domestic violence and abuse, effects on physical health, wage-earning potential and economic security, workforce impacts, welfare services, and outcomes related to age of first marriage.

Commentary
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.
Mar 24, 2020
Journal Article
Increasing the Minimum Wage Could Reduce Divorce in Low-Income Households
U.S. survey data reveals that, among men and women earning low wages, a one-dollar increase in the state minimum wage was linked to delayed marriage and reduced divorce. Both changes are likely to strengthen low-income families.
Mar 16, 2022

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Journal Article
Typologies of Duocentric Networks Among Low-Income Newlywed Couples
This study analyzed combined networks of a couple, collected from 207 mixed-sex newlywed couples We identified five distinct network types with different levels of relationship quality.
Aug 28, 2023
Journal Article
Couples' Diminished Social and Financial Capital Exacerbate the Association Between Maladaptive Attributions and Relationship Satisfaction
A study of the social networks of 462 ethnically diverse newlywed spouses living with low incomes (231 couples, with 30% Black and 50% Latinx). The link between relationship satisfaction and communication depends on network characteristics.
Jun 21, 2023
Journal Article
Lasting Declines in Couples' Social Network Interactions in the First Years of COVID
Couples experienced a 50% decline in face-to-face interactions with their social networks and a nearly 40% decline in virtual interactions during COVID-19, with little recovery over the first 18 months of the pandemic.
Jun 2, 2023
Journal Article
Stability and Change in Newlyweds' Social Networks Over the First Years of Marriage
The social networks of 462 newlywed couples was tracked over the first 18 months of marriage. Spouses' networks grew to include more of each other's family members, more married and financially secure individuals and more good relationships.
Jun 2, 2023
Blog
Talking to Russia, Racial Bias, Mine-Hunting Dolphins: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on preventing escalation of the war in Ukraine, how racial bias compounds over time, why the Navy should stick with its mine-hunting dolphins, and more.
Jul 29, 2022
Commentary
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.
Jul 15, 2022
Blog
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.
Apr 29, 2022
Commentary
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.
Apr 4, 2022
Multimedia
How to Sleep Like Your Relationship Depends on It
RAND's Wendy Troxel shares the science behind the health of sleeping with a partner or not, and provides insights about how to navigate these choices in our relationships.
Nov 2, 2019
Journal Article
Leave Policies and Practice for Non-Traditional Families
This policy memo provides an overview of the extent to which non-traditional families are taken into account by Member States in developing family leave policies.
Aug 16, 2019
Periodical
RAND Review: March-April 2018
This issue features a Q&A with Michael Rich, Soledad O'Brien, and Francis Fukuyama on the perils of truth decay, and a story on the trend toward unretirement among U.S. workers. The Voices column features Gulrez Shah Azhar on environmental refugees.
Mar 5, 2018
Journal Article
The Effect of a Supreme Court Decision Regarding Gay Marriage on Social Norms and Personal Attitudes
Institutions such as the Supreme Court can shift perceptions of social norms, and therefore behavior such as support for gay marriage, without changing personal opinions.
Jan 31, 2018
Commentary
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.
Sep 27, 2017
Journal Article
Observed Relationship Behaviors and Sleep in Military Veterans and Their Partners
Associations between the relationship behaviors of young veterans and their spouses and measured sleep quality suggest that interventions to decrease hostility could improve both marital and physical health.
Jun 1, 2017
Journal Article
The Salience and Severity of Relationship Problems Among Low-Income Couples
Developing policies that are responsive to the needs of, and attractive to, low-income couples requires, at minimum, descriptive data on the challenges those couples perceive in their own relationships.
Apr 13, 2017
Journal Article
Marital Conflict and Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping in Military Couples
Marital conflict among veterans and their partners may "blunt" the dip in blood pressure that normally occurs during the night, and this may lead to a higher risk of CVD.
Nov 28, 2016
Journal Article
Schooling, Marriage, and Age at First Birth in Madagascar
The low school attainment, early marriage, and low age at first birth of females are major policy concerns in less developed countries. This study jointly estimated the determinants of educational attainment, marriage age, and age at first birth among females aged 12-25 in Madagascar.
Oct 31, 2016
Commentary
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.
Sep 2, 2016

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Marwa AlFakhri

Associate Policy Researcher

Marwa AlFakhri (she/her) is an associate researcher at the RAND Corporation and an applied microeconomist with broad research interests in the intersection of labor economics, economic demography, and public policy. She has studied family dynamics, relationships, and decisionmaking. Additional…
Thomas E. Trail

Senior Behavioral Scientist

Thomas E. Trail is a senior behavioral scientist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Trail's research focuses on how stress affects relationship processes and health outcomes among military and civilian couples and the effectiveness of programs in…

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