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Mr J Smith

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• Marriage in Oklahoma Baseline Statewide Survey on Marriage and Divorce

Introduction

Why Oklahoma? Why now?

Oklahoma has launched a groundbreaking effort to strengthen marriage. Specifically, the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI) is a large-scale attempt in public and private sectors to increase access to a healthy marriage for more people—that is, for those who choose marriage for themselves. The Initiative in Oklahoma has received considerable national attention because of its unprecedented scope. This report describes research that impacts practices and policies in Oklahoma as well as the nation.

The leadership of the OMI concluded early on that it would be difficult to rely solely on government recorded vital statistics as a way to know both the current conditions in the state as well as changes that may occur on a broad scale over time. Not only are there inherent difficulties in government systems for collecting vital statistics, the types of data most often collected with regard to marriage and family are not ideally suited to the needs of the Initiative. Information on relationship quality is rarely collected, nor is it common to gather information about attitudes and beliefs related to marriage and family. Further, leaders of the Initiative desired specific information that could inform and refine the steps that are undertaken.

This is the first statewide survey of its kind designed to collect comprehensive information about attitudes and behavior related to marriage, divorce, and marital quality. It is also noteworthy that this effort includes a strong attempt to have the experiences and beliefs of low-income persons well represented