Marriage provides an amazing list of benefits for children. In fact, researchers say that on average children that live with their own two married parents, as opposed to children raised in other family situations, are more likely to:

• succeed in school and in social situations
• marry and succeed at their own marriages

Not all children raised outside of a healthy married family do poorly, but research shows their chances of succeeding are lower.

Children that live in divorced, never-married, or remarried families are more likely to:

• live in poverty
• abuse drugs or alcohol
• experience school failure
• get in trouble with the law
• engage in a variety of risky behaviors
• become teen parents, or
• have behavior or emotional problems

If and when they marry, their marriages are less likely to succeed than the marriages of children that grow up with their own two married parents.