Fractured families have contributed to a rise in child poverty, violence in our communities, and poor educational outcomes. That’s the already well-established finding of the 2025 Hope and a Future report from Center for Christian Virtue (CCV). While the statistics are bleak, the report also points to a solution: In order to address the sharp rise in child poverty, violence, and poor educational outcomes, states should incentivize married parents and support intact families.
According to CCV, the group commissioned the Institute for Family Studies and Professor Brad Wilcox, the Melville Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, to conduct the research in the report.
The study analyzed the health of families in each state based on several metrics, including the percentage of children born out of wedlock, the fertility rate, and the percentage of teens being raised by married parents. Analyzing these numbers, researchers created the Family Structure Index, which ranks all 50 states according to the health of their family culture.
Utah, with 68 percent of adults between the ages of 25 and 54 married and 70 percent of teens raised in intact families, ranks first in the nation for the strength of family culture. Rhode Island ranks last.
The 2025 Hope and a Future report looks at the state of Ohio, which ranks 29th on the Family Structure Index. With 42 percent of children born out of wedlock, Ohio is above the national average. Children born to unmarried parents are more likely to experience poverty and poor educational outcomes.
Looking closer at the data in Ohio, researchers found disparities within the state that reflect the strength and sustainability of family life. Study authors note that in Youngstown, Ohio, where 68 percent of children are born out of wedlock, 50 percent of children live in poverty. However, in New Albany, Ohio, where only “8 percent of children are born into marriage-less households,” just 4 percent of children were living in poverty. Researchers noted, “This trend tracks across Ohio: the more marriage decreases in parenthood, the more child poverty increases.”
The study found a similar correlation with violence. For example, in Dublin, Ohio, “86 percent of children are raised by married parents,” while in Canton, Ohio, “34 percent of children are raised with married parents.” Researchers found “12 times the amount of violent crime incidents [in Canton] compared to Dublin.”
As the negative effects highlighted in the report are multifactorial, the solution will not come about through a single policy or proposal. However, the report authors suggest several strategies to increase marriage and preserve intact families. These include urging legislators to remove marriage penalties and legal frameworks that increase the tax burden for married couples or reduce public assistance when couples marry.
Aaron Baer, president of CCV, described the potential for the report to inform public policy and to inspire churches to take action.
Baer explained that public assistance programs allow people to survive, but by penalizing marriage (unmarried parents can often receive more entitlements), they prevent families from rising from poverty. Referring to other research on “The Success Sequence,” Baer noted that 97 percent of people who graduate at least high school, work a full-time job, and marry before having their first child are not poor as adults.
He stated, “Government makes for a poor substitute for mom and dad,” noting that government programs, however well intentioned, cannot provide the same stability and social safety net statistically that having married parents does.
The report also emphasizes the role of churches and faith communities in encouraging and supporting marriage. The reason for this focus is that community and faith organizations have a much more powerful role in shaping the culture than public policy. As we have seen in Hungary and Japan in recent years, government-led efforts to encourage marriage and childbearing through policy changes and tax incentives have had limited success.
On the other hand, studies show that regular church attendance has a significant positive correlation with lower chances of divorce. When it comes to encouraging marriage and family, churches are a stronger influence than government.
Baer said that CCV has already begun meeting with representatives of different Christian denominations in Ohio and has received positive feedback. Many churches have been silent on the issue of marriage in recent years, failing to articulate what marriage is and encourage young people to pursue it.
At one Christian college, when CCV inquired about marriage and family classes, the administration discovered the school had not offered a class on marriage and family since 2008. Addressing this lack of positive education, and, as Baer said, “capturing the next generation’s imagination for what life is about,” can increase marriage rates and strengthen existing marriages.
Baer noted that our secular culture orbits around the idea that life is about avoiding suffering, and yet we know that the most meaning and beauty comes through enduring suffering and overcoming challenges. Getting this message back into churches and into the public eye with ad campaigns might awaken renewed interest in marriage.
In addition to churches, Baer pointed out the importance of the education system in encouraging — or discouraging — healthy family life. Because groups like Planned Parenthood have a virtual monopoly on so many sexual education programs in Ohio and in other states, students are not hearing about The Success Sequence or being offered a positive picture of married life and the importance of married parents for children’s well-being. Advocating for data-driven education on the power and importance of marriage is a necessary corrective to the sexual education provided in so many of our public schools.
