By now it's pretty well known that blue states have more stable families than red states. (At least, using the 2004/2008 red-blue breakdown).
Not so fast. A new study by leading family sociologists Brad Wilcox and Nicolas Zill turns this, not 180 degrees, but at least 90 degrees or more. For one thing, red states have more children start out in married families even if those families are more likely to divorce, and studies show better outcomes for children from originally-married parents than for cohabiters. Also, controlling for age, income, education and race -- the red states are more diverse, poorer, less educated, and people there marry younger -- accounts for much of the difference, but one may or may not see that as detracting from the basic differences between red and blue states. Also, the reddest and the bluest states have more stable families, and those in the middle are less stable, they argue.
"Red State Families: Better Than We Knew" by W. Bradford Wilcox and Nicholas Zill
Summarised in "The red and blue of family stability" by CAROLYN MOYNIHAN at mercatornet.com.
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