By Staff Reporter |
Arizona’s rising marriage rate is having a positive impact on its poverty rate, according to a new study.
The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) and the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) published a 75-page report last week assessing the impact of family structures on childhood outcomes, academic performance, and community prosperity across the state.
CAP said the report indicated marriage to be an exceedingly powerful, though heavily underutilized, anti-poverty and life success tool.
Since the first year of the pandemic, 2020, Arizona rose from 39th to 35th on the nation’s Family Structure Index, which measures healthy family structure trends.
In 2011, 58 percent of children in Arizona lived with married parents. In 2024, that number rose to 62 percent.
From 2022 to 2024, 85 percent of Arizona children ages six to 17 living with married parents received A’s and B’s in class, whereas only 64 to 65 percent of children in that age range who lived with a single mother or other family structures received those higher grades.
15 percent of Arizona children living with married biological parents received poor grades (mostly B’s and C’s or lower). Comparatively, over one-third of children from single-mother or other homes received those poorer grades.
Additionally, reading proficiency scores tended to increase within districts with higher shares of married-couple households. 60 percent of students within the Higley Unified School District (HUSD) tested proficient in reading; 77 percent of households with children in that district have married parents.
The Flowing Wells Unified School District — which spends about 60 percent more per student on classroom support than HUSD — had a student reading proficiency rate of 35 percent aligning with its married-parent household with children rate of 54 percent.
The report found that the correlation between higher reading proficiency rates and higher marriage rates proved to be true regardless of race.
Marriage rates also proved to have an impact on Arizona children’s mental health. In non-intact families, girls were 60 percent more likely to be depressed and boys were 57 percent more likely to be depressed.
Arizona children in intact homes were less likely to be living in poverty. Less than one in 10 children from married homes were found to be living in poverty, compared to more than one in five children with cohabitating parents and one in four children in single-mother homes.
Unlike with academic outcomes, race did appear to have an impact on poverty. White children in Arizona had starkly lower poverty rates within both married and unmarried households than non-white children.
Three percent of white children living in intact homes were in poverty in Arizona, compared to 14 percent of Hispanic children, 20 percent of Native American children, and 22 percent of black children.
15 percent of white children living in non-intact homes were in poverty in Arizona, compared to 23 percent of Hispanic children, 27 percent of Native American children, and 31 percent of black children.
CAP President Peter Gentala said in a press release that Arizona, historically a frontier state, has a new frontier with building families.
“The American Dream — the Arizona Dream — is still within reach for every Arizonan, and strong families are how we get there together,” said Gentala. “This report isn’t partisan. It’s a data-driven invitation to every Arizonan who cares about the future of our state.”
The report, titled “Renewing Arizona Families: Why Strong Families Are Central to Arizona’s Future,” was co-produced with University of Virginia researcher and National Marriage Project director W. Bradford Wilcox.
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