The Witherspoon Institute is pleased to support the New Family Structures Study (NFSS) at the Population Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. The study is directed by professors Mark Regnerus (Principal Investigator) and Cynthia Osborne (Co-Investigator), who are in turn guided by a research team made up of a diverse group of family scholars. The members of the NFSS research team include scholars who hold divergent views on the normative questions in contemporary debates over marriage and the family. The Institute does not view this fact in a negative light. On the contrary, it believes that the participation of scholars with diverse points of view on moral and political questions will help to ensure that the NFSS will treat its subject matter in a fair-minded, objective manner. The Institute is also pleased that the research team brings together leading family researchers across a range of disciplines.

By supporting the NFSS, The Witherspoon Institute aims to help generate new data about the lives of children who have been reared in different types of family circumstances: intact, married families, adoptive families, stepfamilies, single-parent families, cohabiting families, and same-sex families. The Institute does not know what results the project will generate, but is willing to let the empirical chips fall where they may. As public debates about marriage and family structure continue to rage, the Institute has invested in the NFSS because it promises to focus on what is often relegated to second place in these debates: the well-being of children. Moreover, much of the research on new family structures is plagued by methodological limitations (e.g., small samples, non-representative samples); the NFSS is designed to redress these by relying on large, representative samples of young adults from a range of different family structures. Because of this sound methodology, the Institute is confident that the New Family Structures Study will make an important contribution to our understanding of the associations between new family structures and the long-term welfare of the nation's children.

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.