HEALTHY MARRIAGES

These resources are selected to help Head Start staff prepare parent education programs. These programs are for couples that want to develop the skills and knowledge to form and/or sustain healthy marriages.

ARTICLES

Hao, Lingxin. "Family Structure, Private Transfers, and the Economic Well-Being of Families with Children," Social Forces, Volume 75, Number 1, (September 1996): 269-292
     Examines family structure beyond marital status to include remarriage, cohabitation, and the gender of single parenthood. Includes data for 4,238 non-Hispanic White and Black and Hispanic families from the National Survey of Families and Households (1987-88).

Leitch, M.L. and V. Thomas. "The AAMFT-Head Start Training Partnership Project: Enhancing MFT Capacities Beyond the Family System," Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Volume 25, Number 2, (April 1999): 141-154
     Summarizes the experience of a two-year project to promote partnerships between 12 graduate Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) training programs and their 12 local Head Start partners.

Roberts, Lisen C. and Michael Lane Morris. "An Evaluation of Marketing Factors in Marriage Enrichment Program Promotion,"Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, Volume 47, Number 1, January 1998: 37-44
     Evaluated marketing factors associated with couples' decision to attend or not attend a marriage enrichment program. Surveys 235 spouses (aged 18-70 years), 142 participated in a marriage enrichment seminar.

BOOKS

Hansen, Karen V., Ronnie J. Steinberg and Anita Ilta Garey (Editors). Families in the U.S: Kinship and Domestic Politics. Temple University Press, 1998
     The book includes 62 articles on "topics (from Adoption and African American Families to Work-Family Tensions and Working-Class Families) that should prove useful to teachers, students, and researchers."

Kagan, Sharon L., Bernice Weissbourd. Putting Families First: America's Family Support Movement and the Challenge of Change. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994
     Examines the family support movement as it evolved from a programmatic to systemic approach.

Kagan, Sharon L. and Douglas R. Powell, Bernice Weisbourd, Edward F. Zigler. America's Family Support Programs: Perspectives and Prospects. Yale University Press, 1987
     Organized into six parts: "Part 1 is an introduction that deals with the promise and problems of family support programs; Part 2 offers a context for family support; Part 3 addresses selected types of family support programs; Part 4 focuses on program development and implementation; Part 5 . . . [considers issues relating] to research and evaluation of family support programs; and Part 6 [seeks to] summarize the nature of family support programs and suggest . . . recommendations for the future.""

Ooms, Theodora. Toward More Perfect Unions: Putting Marriage on the Public Agenda. Washington, DC: Family Impact Seminar, 1998
     Examines marriage as a public issue and "develops a framework for a public agenda on marriage." Describes action agendas for the national, state, and community levels.

Walton, Elaine, Patricia Sandau-Beckler and Marc Mannes (Editors). Balancing Family-Centered Services and Child Well-Being: Exploring Issues in Policy, Practice, Theory, and Research. Columbia University Press, 2001
     Includes essays from academic and professional theorists that show how family-centered services and child well-being can be linked on a daily basis to better the lives of both parents and children.

INTERNET SITES

Smart Marriages/Happy Families
http://www.smartmarriages.com
     The web site of the Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education. Promotes an annual "Smart Marriages" Conference.