From June 16 -19 the Witherspoon Institute held its annual seminar on Marriage, Family and the Social Sciences, a program of the Schreyer Summer Seminars. Each year this seminar brings together top graduate students and leading faculty in sociology, demography, psychology, and economics to discuss the state of marriage and family in the 21st Century.

This years seminar, entitled Baby Makes Three: Social Scientific Research on Successfully Combining Marriage and Parenthood, sought to understand how parenthood currently affects the quality and stability of married life, to identify the characteristics of couples who successfully combine marriage and parenthood, and to discuss cultural and policy strategies that might strengthen marriages involving children.

In the last four decades, the relationship between marriage and parenthood in the United States has frayed. Americans are more likely to separate marriage and parenthood, both in belief and practice, as evidenced by increases in non-marital childbearing and public tolerance of childbearing outside marriage. Moreover, research suggests that many couples experience a dip in their marital happiness after becoming parents, and that this dip has deepened in recent years. Nevertheless, research also indicates that children are most likely to thrive when they are raised by their own married parents. Students were presented a global perspective through discussions of how policies and policy outcomes differ from state to state. The wide-ranging discussions covered topics like artificial insemination, marital happiness, the economics of contraception, and the relative merits of maternity leave and compensation in countries like France, Finland and Sweden. The seminar also provided a valuable opportunity for students to meet leading scholars and other up-and-coming researchers.

The seminar faculty included Helen Alvare, George Mason University School of Law; Thomas Bradbury, University of California Los Angeles; Catherine Hakim, London School of Economics; Hans-Peter Kohler, University of Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Marquardt, Institute for American Values; Kyle Pruett, Yale School of Medicine; Marsha Kline Pruett, Smith College; Mark Regnerus, University of Texas Austin, W. Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia.

Applicants came from five continents and a dozen countries. High demand and a limited number of spaces led to an admissions rate of 50%. Admitted students attended seminars and stayed on the campus of Princeton University. Since its inception, the cost of the seminar has been fully covered by the generosity of the supporters of the Witherspoon Institute, with students only paying a $50 registration fee. One student said of this year's seminar, "It was an amazing opportunity to hear from the leaders in our field as well as enter into a very engaging discourse with fellow graduate students and others working in the trenches of marriage and family research. Our accommodations were cozy, the food delicious, and the company beyond comparison."

The seminar was directed by Witherspoon senior fellow W. Bradford Wilcox. Wilcox is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, director of the National Marriage Project, and Director of the Witherspoon Institutes Program on Marriage, Family, and Democracy. Wilcox's research focuses on the influence of religious belief and practice on marriage, cohabitation, parenting, and fatherhood. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and numerous NPR stations. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University before returning to the University of Virginia, where he had earned his undergraduate degree.

The Witherspoon Institute is an independent research center that works to enhance public understanding of the moral foundations of free and democratic societies. Located in Princeton, New Jersey, the Institute promotes the application of fundamental principles of republican government and ordered liberty to contemporary problems through a variety of research and educational ventures. To support the Witherspoon Institute, please follow the contribution instructions or donate online via PayPal.