THE MARRYING KIND:” WHICH MEN MARRY AND WHY

• Among all men surveyed, those from traditional, religiously observant family backgrounds are more likely to be married, to seek marriage and to have positive views of marriage, women, and children than young males from nontraditional and nonreligiously observant family backgrounds.
• Slightly more than two out of ten expressed strongly negative views about their own personal desire to marry as well as more negative attitudes toward marriage, women, and children.
• Compared to other unmarried men in the survey sample, they are significantly more likely to come from nontraditional and nonreligiously observant families.
• A large majority (81 percent) of married men agree with the statement that “you decided to marry because it was the right time in your life to settle down.”
              
  
• Download full report,  "The State of our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America." The National Marriage Project, Rutgers University, 2004
• Download PowerPoint slides

The United States had an estimated 5.5 million “stay-at-home” parents last year — 5.4 million moms and 98,000 dads, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. It contains the Census Bureau’s first-ever analysis of stay-at-home parents.

Among these stay-at-home parents, 42 percent of mothers and 29 percent of fathers had their own children under age 3 living with them.

• The majority of children were rated by their teachers or parents as "often" or "very often" showing self-control (71 percent and 57 percent, respectively, for the teacher and parent ratings). 
• The percentage of children who "often" or "very often" showed self-control, according to the parent rating, increased within each socioeconomic and demographic subgroup of children.
• The percentages of non-Hispanic black and Hispanic children rated by their teachers as "often" or "very often" exhibiting self-control did not change between kindergarten entry and the end of first grade.
• Nearly nine out of ten children (87 percent) had teachers who rated them as "usually" or "always" working to the best of their ability by the end of first grade.
• The percentage of children who were engaged in school at the end of kindergarten was 89 percent. 
• In kindergarten and in first grade, slightly more than one in ten children were overweight