Catholic Family Campaign

Top 10 family facts

Posted on October 14th, 2009

from the Heritage Foundation’s Family Facts….

1. Marital Adjustment. Couples who believe that marriage has spiritual significance tend to adjust more easily to marriage and to experience lower levels of conflict, investing more in their relationship and collaborating more in resolving disagreements. full details

2. Marital Stability. Marriages in which both the husband and wife frequently attend church services are less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse attends frequently. full details

3. Adolescents’ Prospects for Marriage. Adolescents who attend church more frequently and report that religion is important in their lives are more likely to marry and less likely to cohabit than peers who are less religious. full details

4. Marriage among Mothers. On average, among urban mothers who gave birth out of wedlock, those who attend religious services frequently are more likely to become married within a year of their children’s births. full details

5. Attitudes toward Cohabitation and Premarital Sex. Young adults who attended religious services frequently during adolescence are more likely to disapprove of premarital sex and cohabitation than peers who had not attended services frequently. full details

6. Marital Quality. On average, wives who attend church weekly with their husbands experience higher levels of marital happiness than peers in marriages in which neither spouse attends church weekly. full details

7. Paternal Involvement. Fathers who attend religious services frequently are more likely to be engaged with their infant children than fathers who do not frequently attend services. full details

8. Marital Fidelity. Husbands and wives who attend religious services frequently are less likely to be unfaithful to their spouses than peers who do not often attend services. full details

9. Domestic Violence. Men and women who attend church services weekly are less likely to commit an act of domestic violence than peers who seldom attend. full details

10. Youths’ Expectation of Marriage. Adolescents who consider religion to be important in their lives tend to have a higher expectation of getting married than their peers. full details