When marriage disappears : the new middle America

State of Our Unions 2010: When Marriage Disappears finds that shifts in marriage mores, increases in unemployment, and declines in religious attendance have played a particularly important role in driving the retreat from marriage in middle America. This retreat from marriage is placing the American Dream beyond the reach of many in our society, imperiling the social and economic welfare of children from middle America, and opening up a social and cultural divide in our nation that does not bode well for the American experiment in democracy.