Review of Smart Marriages Conference, 2001

By Harry Benson

Conclusions

1. A marriage movement is underway in the US that we in the UK would do well to follow and whose lessons we can apply. This coalition spans high-powered academics and policymakers through to grass roots activity by ordinary lay educators. It covers a broad spectrum of views and beliefs, from liberal through conservative, committed believers through atheists, under the general banner of "marriage education" – the need to promote marriage values, attitudes, skills, behaviours and support.



2. New long-term research studies are increasingly clear that marriage works well and is worth sticking with, that divorce is not the answer for adults and is most deeply damaging for children when they grow up to form their own adult relationships, and that the majority of divorces are from low conflict marriages but have the very worst impact on the children.



3. A growing number of city-wide marriage policies, led by churches, are having a sufficient impact on divorce rates in the wider community that policy-makers are starting to apply their lessons into public policy. Judges in Michigan and state legislators in Oklahoma are setting the trend for others to follow.



4. Some of the excellent marriage education programmes from the US are easily available in the UK but we can also take advantage of our own locally grown programmes within a community context. Either way, there is an urgent need to promote the availability, relevance and effectiveness of good quality marriage education in this country.



5. We need to draw together our own UK version of Smartmarriages to create a similarly broad coalition amongst those of us willing to do something to get "marriage" back to the core of the public and private agenda.