WHY SHOULD GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
TAKE ON MARRIAGE EDUCATION AS ONE OF HIS CORE ISSUES?
There is a STRONG Alignment of Interests
Between Governor Schwarzenegger’s Key Issues and Marriage/Marriage Education
Based on excerpts from Governor Schwarzenegger’s Official Website
Issue # 1 – Health
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Governor’s groundbreaking Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act
aims to “bring affordable health care coverage to every Californian by: … Promoting prevention, wellness and
personal responsibility.” “The Governor's plan outlines a comprehensive prevention policy that encourages and
rewards healthy behaviors; supports new efforts to fight chronic conditions including diabetes and obesity;
reduces smoking; promotes more efficient service delivery and will help prevent medical errors.”
Marriage:
 Men and heart disease: Married men were about half as likely to dies of chronic heart disease or other
causes during a ten year period as unmarried men.1
 Women and heart disease: Women who reported “keeping their mouths shut” during conflict with their
spouse – an indication of resentment buried issues – had four times the risk of dying over the 10 year
follow up study.2
 Immune system impaired: Couples in conflict ridden marriages take longer than the happily married to
heal from all kinds of wounds.3
 A longitudinal study that tracked over 1,500 privileged middle-class children with high IQ’s over their life
span found a significantly higher mortality rate for those whose parents divorced, compared with those
from intact families.4
 Health effects during childhood from divorced families include a doubling of the risk of asthma and a
significant increase in injury rate.5
Issue # 2 – Public Safety: At-Risk Youth, Gangs, and Crime Prevention
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “In May, the Governor introduced CalGRIP to confront the recent dramatic
increase in gangs across the state and their proliferation in suburban and rural areas….The CalGRIP strategy
targets more than $31 million in state and federal funding toward local anti-gang efforts, including intervention,
suppression and prevention.”
In October 2007, the Governor signed legislation that will “advance the Governor’s…CalGRIP Initiative. One
proposal establishes the Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy; others are focused on education for youthful
offenders, witness protection, anti-gang violence parenting classes and civil remedies that would allow a landlord
to evict a gang offender.”
“Marital Status, Marital Strain & the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease or Total Mortality: The Framingham Offspring
Study.” Eaker, E.D. et al., 2nd Int’l Conf on Women, Heart Disease & Stroke, Feb 16, 2005.
2
Ibid.
3
Kiecolt-Glaser & Ronald Glaser, Am Psychosomatic Society Meeting, Vancouver, BC March 2005.
4
Joseph E. Schwartz et al., “Sociodemographic and Psychosocial Factors in Childhood as Predictors of Adult Mortality.”
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 85 (1995), pp. 1237-1245.
5
Gopal K. Singh and Stella M. Yu, “U.S. Childhood Mortality, 1950 through 1993: Trends and Socioeconomic
Differentials,” American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 86 (1996), pp. 505-512.
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Marriage:
 Divorce is correlated with more truancy, decreased ability to form successful social relationships and
solve conflicts, and more frequent involvement in crime and drug abuse. This constellation of factors
increases a children’s likelihood of being at-risk for gang influence and involvement.6
 Juvenile incarceration rates for children of divorced parents has been found to be 12x higher than for
children in two-parent families;7
 A U.S. longitudinal study which tracked over 6,400 boys over a period of 20 years (well into their adult
years) found that children without biological fathers in the home are roughly 3x times more likely to
commit a crime that leads to incarceration than are children of intact families; 8
 The findings on parents’ marital outcome and delinquency are not confined to boys. Among adolescent
girls, there is a strong correlation between family structure and delinquency, 9 hostile behavior,10drug use,
larceny, skipping school,11 and alcohol abuse.12
 Children who use drugs and abuse alcohol are more likely to come from family backgrounds
characterized by parental conflict and parental rejection, and because divorce increases these factors, it
increases the likelihood that children will abuse alcohol and begin using drugs. 13
 Drug use in children is lowest in intact married families.14
Issue # 3 – Education
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: On 10/12/07, “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed…legislation to
benefit California’s students and education system. Specifically, these bills make positive changes to career
technical education, charter schools, California High School Exit Exam and postsecondary education. ‘Investing
in California’s education system is vital to providing California’s students with a quality education,’ said Governor
Schwarzenegger. ‘It is crucial that our students have a strong foundation in the fundamental skills necessary for a
successful future.’”
“As Governor, he has aggressively worked to increase after-school funding, making California the first state in the
nation to significantly invest in a comprehensive after-school program.”
Marriage:
 Children from divorced homes performed more poorly in reading, spelling and math and repeated a grade
more frequently than did children from intact two-parent families15;
Finn-Aage Esbensen, “Preventing Adolescent Gang Involvement”, U.S.
Department of Justice, Juvenile Justice Bulletin, September 2000.
7
Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Youth Services, “Family Status of Delinquents in
Juvenile Correctional Facilities in Wisconsin,” April 1994. The data were merged with data from the Current Population
Survey on family structure in Wisconsin for that year to derive rates of incarceration by family structure.
8
Cynthia Harper and Sara S. McLanahan, “Father Absence and Youth Incarceration,” presented at the annual meeting of the
American Sociological Association, 1998.
9
Karen Heimer, “Gender, Interaction, and Delinquency: Testing a Theory of Differential Social Control,” Social Psychology
Quarterly, Vol. 59 (1996), pp. 39-61.
10
Bilge Pakiz, Helen Z. Reinherz, and Rose M. Glaconia, “Early Risk Factors for Serious Antisocial Behavior at Age 21: A
Longitudinal Community Study,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vo.. 67 (1997), pp. 92-100.
11
Neil Kalter, B. Reimer, A. Brickman, and J. W. Chen, “Implications of Parental Divorce for Female Development,”
Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, Vol. 25 (1986), pp. 538-544.
12
Frost and Pakiz, “The Effects of Marital Disruption on Adolescents,” pp. 544-555.
13
William J. Doherty and R. H. Needle, “Psychological Adjustment and Substance Use Among Adolescents Before and
After a Parental Divorce,” Child Development, Vol. 62 (1991), pp. 328-337.
14
John P. Hoffman and Robert A. Johnson, “A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use,” Journal of
Marriage and the Family, Vol. 60, No. 3 (1998), pp. 633-645; Robert L. Flewing and K.E. Baumann, “Family Structure as a
Predictor of Initial Substance Use and Sexual Intercourse in Early Adolescents,: Journal of Marriage and the Family; Vol. 52
(1990), pp. 171-181.
15
Popenoe, Life Without Father, p. 57. June O’Neill and Anne Hill, professors of business and government at Baruch
College City University of New York, also found that growing up with a divorce parent has a significant, negative effect on
children’s test scores. See M. Anne Hill and June O’Neill, “Family Endowments and the Achievement of Young Children
with Special Reference to the Underclass,” Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 29 (1994), pp. 1064-1100.
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The absence of the father lowers cognitive test scores for young children in general 16, especially the math
scores of daughters17;
By age 13, there is an average difference of half year in reading abilities between children of divorced
parents and those who have intact families18;
High school drop-out rates are much higher among children of divorced parents than among children of
always-married parents19;
The college attendance rate is about 60 percent lower among children of divorced parents compared with
children of intact families20;
Issue # 4 – Jobs and the Economy
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: The Governor’s policies promote employment and economic growth in
California. On 10/12/07, “Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger…vetoed legislation that would have threatened
California’s economic growth. ‘Since I took office, California’s business climate has dramatically improved.
Unemployment is at its lowest in three decades, and personal income is growing and revenues are the highest in
state history. These bills would have reversed the success we’ve had in putting California back on track,’ said
Governor Schwarzenegger.”
Marriage:
 Almost 50% of households with children undergoing divorce move into poverty following the divorce. 21
 40% of families on TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, formerly called Welfare) are divorced
or separated single-parent households.”22
 Divorce increases the likelihood that a family will become economically distressed, as single-parent
families constitute more than 73% of the lowest income quintile. 23
 Because divorce leads to decreased household income and higher risk of poverty, it affects a child’s level
of academic achievement, which translates into lower earnings as an adult. 24
 Divorce diminishes the potential of every member of the household to accumulate wealth. Decline in
income is intergenerational, since children whose parents divorce are likely to earn less as adults than
children in intact families.25
Mary Ann Powell and Toby L. Parcel, “Effects of Family Structure on the Earnings Attainment Process: Differences by
Gender, “Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 59 (1997), p. 419, reporting on unpublished research by Frank Mott
(1993), prepared for NIH/NICHD.
17
Popenoe, Life Without Father, p. 148, reporting on the findings of Goldstein (1982).
18
Jim Stevenson and Glenda Fredman, “The Social Correlates of Reading Ability,” Journal of Child Psychology and
Psychiatry, Vol. 31 (1990), pp. 689-690.
19
Sara McLanahan and Gary D. Sandefur, Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 67.
20
Hillevi M. Aro and Ulla K. Palosaari, “Parental Divorce, Adolescence, and Transition to Young Adulthood: A Follow-Up
Study,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 62, No. 3 (July 1992), pp. 421-429.
21
Julie Heath, “Determinants of Spells of Poverty Following Divorce,” Review of Social Economy, Vol. 49 (1992), pp. 305315.
22
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1998 Green Book: Background Material and Data on
Programs Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means, May 19, 1998, p. 540.
23
Families with Children by Income Quintile & Family Structure. Bureau of the Census, Current Pop. Survey, 1997.
24
Patrick F. Fagan, “How Broken Families Rob Children of Their Chances of Future Prosperity,” Heritage Foundation
Backgrounder No. 1283, June 11, 1999.
25
Families with Children by Income Quintile & Family Structure. Bureau of the Census, Current Pop. Survey, 1997.
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