Making a Covenant Marriage in a Standard World: Religion and Commitment in Modern America.

The Bush administration?s current emphasis on promoting marriage in hopes of decreasing poverty and increasing the well-being of children, as well as introduced covenant marriage legislation in at least twenty-three states, make covenant marriage an important and timely topic. While the arguments for and against covenant marriage abound, a dearth of data has prevented explorations of how covenant and standard marriages actually compare. In addition, because the enactment of covenant marriage laws is so recent and such laws have been passed in only three states, existing work on covenant marriage is largely speculative. We are uniquely equipped to address these issues, as we are currently wrapping up a five-year, three wave quantitative and qualitative study of both types of marriage in Louisiana, the first state to pass covenant marriage legislation. Our data comprise the only longitudinal panel study of newlywed covenant and standard married couples and include multiple dimensions of religiosity, spirituality, and marital functioning. Our analyses will provide the only empirical information exploring whether (and if so, how) covenant marriage is associated with stronger, more stable unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]