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Closing the Marriage Gap

By: Dr. Wade Horn

Part I

Starting this month, the Child Support Report will highlight Part I of a two part series "Closing the Marriage Gap," an article by Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, Dr. Wade Horn. Published in the June issue of Crisis Magazine, the article focuses on getting parents to see how a healthy successful marriage benefits them as well as their children. Part II of "Closing the Marriage Gap" appears in next month's issue.

When President George W. Bush proposed new programs to strengthen marriage, few questioned the goal but many questioned how it could be achieved. Isabel V. Sawhill, president of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the New York Times, "Marriage is a good thing, and it would help kids a lot if more were born to married parents, but I'm not sure we know how to do it."

The current debate over "how to do it" has emerged because the old debate over the value of marriage that began in the academies in the mid-1960s (and largely remained there) has ended. Notwithstanding that once-noisy argument, most Americans continued to believe that marriage is good for children, adults, and society. New studies back up what simple common sense has long maintained: On average, children raised by their own parents in healthy and stable married families enjoy better physical and mental health and are less likely to be poor. They're more successful in school, have lower dropout rates, and fewer teenage pregnancies. They abuse drugs less and have fewer encounters with the criminal law.

Adults, too, benefit from healthy and stable marriages. They tend to live longer, healthier lives and are more affluent. Married mothers suffer from considerably lower rates of depression than their single counterparts. Like a good education, a good marriage is a real asset. Married men earn between 10 and 40 percent more than similar single men, and married couples accumulate substantially more wealth. By the time they're ready to retire, married couples have, on average, assets worth two and a half times as much as their single counterparts. (The figure for married couples is $410,000, compared with $167,000 for those who never married and $154,000 for divorced individuals, according to Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher in their book, The Case for Marriage.) Family structure also has an effect on family process. It's not surprising that children are more likely to enjoy warm, enduring relationships with their parents when their parents themselves sustain warm, enduring relationships with each other. Unmarried couples living together don't reap the same benefits, either for themselves, for their children, or for society.

Twelve leading family scholars recently concluded from evidence gathered by social scientists that "marriage is more than a private emotional relationship. It's also a social good.

Not every person can or should marry. And not every child raised outside of marriage is damaged as a result. But communities where good marriages are common have better outcomes for children, women, and men than do communities suffering from high rates of divorce, unmarried childbearing, and high-conflict or violent marriages" (Why Marriage Matters: 21 Conclusions from the Social Sciences).

But if marriage is a social good, can we be satisfied with a situation in which so many children and communities are deprived of its benefits? Once we acknowledge the importance of a stable, healthy marriage, the next question is what role can and should government play in helping couples best achieve it, especially those couples most at risk?

In his marriage education initiative, President Bush proposes to help couples build healthy, lasting marriages - if they want help. The mission of the Administration for Children and Families is to support activities that help those couples who choose to marry develop the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain a healthy marriage.

Critics claim that, however well-intentioned the president's proposals, we simply don't know enough about how to educate men and women for marriage to offer such programs. It's true that more research is needed. But while we don't know as much as we'd like to, we do know enough, based on sound empirical evidence, to state that marriage programs do work. They can help couples find greater satisfaction in their marriages, reduce conflict, and presumably decrease the likelihood of divorce. A 1999 comprehensive scholarly review of couples' therapy concluded on a strongly affirmative note: "The results of dozens of these [studies]...indicate unequivocally that couples' therapy increases satisfaction [in marriage]." Another study of premarital and marital enrichment programs found that they improved marital satisfaction for about two-thirds of those who participated.

Other studies have found evidence that such marriage programs may be especially effective for troubled couples. For example, a 1999 study found that two years after a marriage-centered treatment program for 75 male alcoholics and their wives, reports of spousal (husband to wife) violence dropped from 48 percent to 16 percent. A 2000 study of 88 male alcoholics and their wives who participated in similar behavior-focused alcohol treatment programs showed a substantial reduction in verbal aggression two years after the program.

Still, it's important to recognize that education for marriage is not therapy. It doesn't require highly trained and licensed professionals. In fact, preliminary results from an ongoing clinical study of one marriage/preparation program indicate that clergy and other lay educators are at least as effective as trained therapists (and considerably less expensive). Rather than following the psychotherapeutic model, marriage education takes a civil society model for tackling social problems by encouraging faith-based and other community groups to develop hands-on ways to help their members, friends, and neighbors.

Research on marriage education suffers from some of the same limitations as research on marital counseling. With a few important exceptions, the time frame of the studies is relatively short, so they don't measure the long-term effects of the programs. Concerns about the self-selection effect and other design issues call attention to the need for more and better research. Several large ongoing clinical trails of marriage interventions, including a skills-based program for new parents, conducted by Dr. Pamela L. Jordan of the University of Washington for the National Institutes of Health, will soon shed new light on these and other important questions.We know enough today to know that we need to know more, but we already know more than enough to get started. Programs have been used in a wide variety of contexts, and dozens of reports testify to their effectiveness. Based on the knowledge we have, we're well-prepared to launch demonstration projects informed by sound empirical research and aimed at helping at-risk couples develop healthy marriages.

The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) is one of several such programs whose long-term positive results are supported by empirical evidence. Currently available in both secular and Christian versions, PREP offers a twelve-hour sequence of mini-lectures and discussions on topics that include communication, conflict management, forgiveness, religious beliefs and practices, expectations, fun, and friendship. PREP emphasizes strategies for enhancing and maintaining commitment. Eighty-five percent of couples who go through PREP report that they're highly satisfied with the program. Seventy-five percent of men and 78 percent of women in one study ranked training in communication skills as its most helpful component.

Evaluating the results of premarital preparation is difficult, because attendance is voluntary and couples may drop out before evaluations are complete. However, long-term studies of couples in the PREP program report an improvement in the quality of the marriage and a reduction in divorce in the first three to five years after marriage. Three years after intervention, for example, PREP couples expressed more satisfaction with their marriages, were communicating more effectively, and reported fewer conflicts than did similar couples who didn't go through the program. Also, fewer instances of physical violence were reported in three- to five-year follow-ups.

Predictably, gains in marital satisfaction translate into lower divorce rates. In one recent study, 16 percent of the non-program couples had divorced by the time of the five-year follow-up, compared with only 3 percent of the PREP couples. In another sample, PREP couples were only about half as likely to have divorced at the five-year mark (8 percent of PREP couples versus 19 percent of the others). A large-scale research project supported by the National Institute of Mental Health is under way at the University of Denver, designed to test the long-term effectiveness of PREP when given by lay leaders or clergy in communities of faith. A substantial program evaluation is ongoing in the U.S. Army as well.

Published empirical evidence also supports the effectiveness of the Relationship Enhancement (RE) program. In a two-day weekend, RE teaches couples nine marital skills that emphasize communicating effectively, responding empathetically, and resolving conflicts. "Numerous studies have evaluated the impact of RE enrichment programs for couples," a recent review of the literature states. "These studies have typically found couples make significant gains in the areas of communication, self-disclosure, empathy, and relationship adjustment."

Research comparing RE with Couples Communication and Engaged Encounter programs found that RE had the strongest effect of those tested. And it also appears to reduce rates of domestic violence. One study of 90 violent husbands-all of whom were first offenders arrested for spousal abuse-found that none of the men randomly assigned to RE was arrested again for the same offense in the year following treatment, compared with 20 percent of the untreated group.

Reprinted with permission from CRISIS (www.crisismagazine.com).

Suffer from TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA? - OCSE's 13th National Looms

Are you a superstitious person? Do you have an aversion to the number 13? Well, if you do, you're not alone. Lots of people have triskaidekaphobia - a fear of the number 13. And while we have no universal cure for the phobia, we can offer some consoling news.

On September 8 - 10, OCSE will conduct the 13th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. The theme of this year's conference is "Partnering for Children." The good news is that our 13th promises to bring together some of the most talented, resourceful, and knowledgeable people within the child support community to showcase various methods that enhance collaboration among CSE partners.

There will be workshops featuring newer partners in the CSE program, such as faith-based, healthy marriage, and fatherhood organizations, together with the many other entities serving children through the national Access and Visitation program. Additionally, there will be workshops featuring the role of the courts, employers, and other partners who play a key role in the CSE programs at the federal, state, and local levels.

All are intended to meet the conference goal of improving the effectiveness of the CSE program through partnering programs which encourage professionals in different disciplines to look beyond what has been done in the past and embrace successful, although sometimes unfamiliar, ideas and practices that work for children. In keeping with efforts to use the latest technology, the 13th National will also feature web-casting of several plenary and workshop sessions, allowing us to expand our capacity to train more people, both in this country and around the world.

There should remain only one lingering fear for any triskaidekaphobic - and that is not being able to join your colleagues and others interested in CSE programs at the 13th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference!

DCL-03-18, signed June 25, 2003, contains important conference, registration, and web casting information. Go to the OCSE Home Page at www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse and click on the "13th National CSE Training Conference" icon.

2nd National Judicial Symposium

By: Larry Holtz

2nd National Symposium on Children, Courts, and the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program a Success - OCSE Commissioner Challenges Attendees

The 2nd National Symposium on Children, Courts and the Federal Child Support Enforcement Program was conducted in conjunction with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) on May 28th - 30th. A combined total of 300 judges, court administrators, federal, regional and state IV-D staffers, tribal representatives, plus Medicaid/SCHIP participants, attended. Symposium in Chicago, Illinois. The Symposium marked the continued OCSE commitment to communicate with both state and tribal courts regarding efforts to collaborate on national child support and medical support efforts.

The purpose of the gathering was to provide an opportunity for the diverse audience to work together in developing a comprehensive, integrated service delivery system for improved family support programs. Other objectives identified by the Symposium included:

• Educating participants about current child and medical support issues;
• Gathering and assessing information about how child and medical support structures and processes vary from state to state and, in some instances, intrastate;
• Evaluating the need for developing educational programs for state, tribal, and regional judicial forums; and
• Facilitating personal and inter-organizational lines of communication to improve customer service.

The opening plenary session featured remarks from Dr. Sherri Z. Heller, Commissioner, OCSE; New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye, President of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ); John Ferry, Michigan State Court Administrator and Chair of the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA); and Jackie Garner, Regional Administrator, Region V, Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

During her portion of the greetings, Commissioner Heller challenged attendees to use the Symposium as a means to achieve a "transformative" moment. She went on to explain that they should use the information provided, and collegial atmosphere generated, to critically examine how and why things are currently done a certain way as a means of opening doors to new perspectives. Chief Judge Judith Kaye, in her comments, reminded participants that "when we all work together in the area of child support, . . . the major beneficiary, the first beneficiary, the most important beneficiary is the children. It helps us do our job better when we build partnerships with social service agencies, with child support agencies, so that we have a better opportunity to make the correct, meaningful, enforceable decisions. That's what we want to do." Variations of those essential themes were also mirrored by the other plenary speakers as they, in turn, urged their colleagues to make full use of the opportunities afforded by the Symposium to bring about positive results.

The two and a half day working symposium was concluded with a closing plenary session where participants shared ideas, identified challenges, offered potential solutions, and formulated next steps for implementation of plans. As a direct result of this collaborative session, OCSE and its partners are already identifying tasks that need to be addressed to resolve issues. Examples include, but are not limited to, strategies for arrears management, defining "reasonable cost" for health insurance, and effective interstate case processing. A final report due out in mid-July may define other action items that even further widen the breadth and scope of those transformative moments experienced by the participants.

New Jersey Lien and Levy Success

All states now have new administrative lien and subpoena powers enacted into law by the U. S. Congress in 1996. State Child Support agencies can issue subpoenas administratively to any person, business or entity, to determine assets and to access information on persons who owe child support. States can issue liens and levies administratively against the assets of delinquent parents in order to collect past due support.

An obligor from Connecticut was awarded an insurance settlement. Through the New Jersey Child Support Lien Network program, $73,000 of the settlement was attached and sent to pay his child support debt. Of that money, a family in Orange County, California received $44,000 and TANF was reimbursed $29,000.

Printed with permission from the "the Child Support Quarterly", issued by the New Jersey Office of Child Support Enforcement.

Financial Responsibility Reporting Forms Approved by OMB

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved the revision of OCSE-396A, used by states to report state expenditures, and OCSE-34A, used to report child support collections. These forms were approved for a three-year period. States will start using these forms in FY 2004, beginning October 1, 2003.

2003 Conference and Events Calendar

August

3-7 - National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) 52nd Annual Conference and Training Exposition, World Center Marriott Orlando, FL, Jacqueline Williams, (202) 624-8180.

21 - National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) Child Support Tele-Talk (Broadcast), Topic: Military Enforcement, NCSEA, (202) 624-8180.

September

7-11 - Domestic Relations Association of Pennsylvania Annual Conference, Hilton Hotel and Towers, Harrisburg, PA, Stuart Jackson, (814) 643-1403.

8-10 - 13th National Child Support Enforcement Training Conference Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, Capital Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C., Anne Gould, (202) 401-5437.

9-10 - Urban Academy, Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (Invitation only), Capital Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C., Bob Clifford, (215) 861-4047.

12 - Illinois Access and Visitation Programs: Family Reunion, The Packard Plaza, Peoria, IL, Sheila Murphy Russell, (630)784-6060.

16-17 - Nebraska Child Support Enforcement Association Training Conference, Ramada Inn Conference, Kearney, NE, Misty D. Sinsel, (402) 471-6017.

16-18 - South Dakota Investigators' Training Meeting, Ramkota Inn, Pierre, SD, Kim Keller, (605) 773-3641.

17-19 - Southwest Regional Support Association (SWRESA) Annual Conference, Double Tree Hotel, New Orleans, LA, Kenneth Martinez, (337) 363-6638, ext. 112.

18 - National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) Child Support Tele-Talk (Broadcast), Topic: Bankruptcy, NCSEA, (202) 624-8180.

October

1-3 - Michigan Family Support Council Annual Training Conference, Sheraton Inn, Lansing, MI, Andy Crisenbery, (517) 768-6496 or Ellen Duncan, (517) 241-8051.

16 - National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA) Child Support Tele-Talk (Broadcast), Topic: Supervisory Skills, NCSEA, (202) 624-8180.

22-24 - The Oklahoma Child Support Enforcement Association Annual Conference, Tulsa, OK, Kay Brooks, (405) 522-2752.