, Columnist
Marriage as a Cause of Stability, Not Just an Effect
When cohabitation goes up, so do rates of parents' breaking up or forming new relationships.
Then comes baby in a baby carriage.
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Well-adjusted children and functional marriages go together. But are the kids thriving because the parents’ marriage works, or does the marriage work for the same reasons that the kids are thriving?
This is what social scientists call “selection effect,” and it is always lurking, threatening to confound seemingly clear-cut results. Unfortunately, in studies about marriage, there’s no definite answer.1486582608921