Strong Families

Strong families and stable family life are essential to individual and social well-being.

Sustainable, flourishing societies depend upon strong, stable families. Across the globe, children are most likely to thrive socially, economically, emotionally, and educationally when they enjoy the shelter and stability of an intact family with a married mother and father. This formula provides a ‘protective shield’ over children, serving as a buffer against countless negative outcomes.

Key to this principle of family literacy is understanding that as imperfect as they may be, strong, stable marriages and families play a vital role in determining the health and welfare of children, in providing tremendous potential for happiness, meaning, and belonging, and even in shaping the political, economic, and social destinies of nations.

More and more, scholars are finding that the long-established and well-understood institutions of marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, and stable family life were essential to individual and social well-being.

Not every family, especially through the generations, will be fortunate enough to be founded upon stable marital unions. But, despite deviations and human failures, the model itself–as shown by the course of history and mountains of current research–is the surest recipe for personal and social progress.