Despite the culture war taking place in America, one positive trend has been spotted by a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies: more and more children are living with their married mother and father.
Lyman Stone’s analysis discovered that since 2014, “the share of kids living with their parents has actually risen by about 1.5 percentage points.” Although a seemingly small number, that increase defies the intense downward trend witnessed throughout the 1960s to the early 2010s.
Several factors contribute to the promising new trend. First, both marriage and divorce rates are falling, which means that the marriages that do happen are more stable. Second, the number of children born to married parents has remained at a constant, while the number of unmarried women having children has steadily decreased over the past 20 years. Thus, “the children who are born are more likely to live with two married parents.”
These numbers have far-reaching impacts on the overall well-being of children. Numerous studies show that children who are raised in stable, two-parent households have a higher rate of success as adults in nearly every aspect of life as compared to children raised in single-parent households. A recent study found that children raised in stable homes are “more likely to flourish economically, educationally, and socially,” typically having higher college graduation rates and decreased chances of poverty and incarceration.
This encouraging news demonstrates why conservative organizations like FPIW continue to fight for God’s design of marriage – so that children can be raised in healthy, Godly homes with a mother and father. It’s why we fight to protect children inside and outside of the womb and push against radical gender ideology. Much of the policy supported by FPIW is directly related to the well-being of children and creating a healthy and safe environment for them.
Stone concludes that as of 2023, “the decline in intact families in America appears to have bottomed out for now. The reasons for this are many: declining divorce and falling nonmarital fertility prominent among them. Naturally, these trends could change in the future, but as of now, it appears that not only did COVID fail to undo the trend of rising intact families, it may have accelerated it for certain groups.”
Amid the darkness and perversion that is seemingly overtaking the world, good things are still happening – and it is because of the faithfulness of the churches, conservative organizations, and prayer warriors that have continued to fight for the Kingdom of God despite how the world around them may appear.
