Coffin Corner

The Institute for American Values

CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO JOIN

A CONVERSATION WITH

LINDA MALONE-COLÓN

Founder of the National Center on African American Marriages
and Parenting at Hampton University

ELIZABETH MARQUARDT

Director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values

W. BRADFORD WILCOX

Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia

ON

WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS

An Argument for the Goods of Marriage

HOSTED BY

JONATHAN RAUCH

Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution

BRAD WILCOX chaired the team of scholars that authored the third edition of Why Marriage Matters.

SEATING IS LIMITED.
To reserve a seat, please RSVP to info@americanvalues.org OR 212-246-3942
Program will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Copies of Why Marriage Matters will be available.

WHY MARRIAGE MATTERS

About the Publication:

In recent decades, scholars waged battles over marriage. Some argued that marriage was an outmoded and even destructive institution. But now, the debate is over. The scholarly evidence points to the enormous benefits of marriage to couples, children, and the society. Released by a group of 18 family scholars, Why Marriage Matters offers important new findings from the social sciences on the state of marriage in the United States. While divorce rates for families with children have fallen almost to pre-divorce revolution levels, family instability continues to increase for children as a whole due, in large part, to the fact that more than 40 percent of American children will spend time in a cohabiting household.

About the Panelists:

Linda Malone-Colón is founder of the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting and chair of the Psychology Department at Hampton University. She is a noted scholar, national speaker, and consultant and has authored several important publications on African American marriage and families. Additionally, Dr. Malone-Colón is currently engaged in research and scholarship aimed at identifying protective and risk factors for African Americans in developing satisfying and stable marital relationships.

Elizabeth Marquardt is editor of FamilyScholars.org, where she also blogs. She is vice president for family studies and director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values. Marquardt is author of Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce. Based on the first nationally representative study of grown children of divorce in the U.S., she argues that while an amicable divorce is better than a bitter one, even amicable divorces profoundly shape the inner lives of children.

W. Bradford Wilcox is director of the National Marriage Project and associate professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. He has published articles on marriage, cohabitation, parenting, and fatherhood in The American Sociological Review, Social Forces, The Journal of Marriage and Family and The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and is now researching the effect that gender norms, children, commitment, and religion have on the quality of contemporary American marriages.

About the Host:

Jonathan Rauch is a contributing editor for National Journal and The Atlantic, and is the author of several books and many articles on public policy, culture, and economics. He is also a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. His multiple-award-winning column, "Social Studies," was published in National Journal (a Washington-based weekly on government, politics, and public policy) from 1998 to 2010. His latest book is Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America, published in 2004 by Times Books (Henry Holt).