Ohio Ranks Only 29th In The Family Structure Index

Ohio ranks 29th in family strength, according to a new report from the Institute for Family Studies and the Center for Christian Virtue. The Hope and a Future report spotlights the state of Ohio families, details the consequences of family breakdown in the Buckeye state, and charts a policy course to turn things round.

A Dream Deferred in Ohio

What is the American dream? It is a “better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank,” in the words of James Truslow Adams, the historian who coined the term just over a century ago. By this standard, Ohio is in trouble. Consider these three rankings:

Ohio ranks 3rd for deaths of despair (suicide, or drug or alcohol-related deaths).
Ohio ranks 15th for child poverty, with 17% of the state’s children living in poverty.
Ohio ranks in the bottom quintile when it comes to hope.

Why is the American Dream in Trouble in Ohio?

The biggest factor that determines the health of the American Dream is often not the factors that dominate our public conversation—like economic inequality, race, or education—but the family. Repeatedly, studies focusing on deaths of despair, economic mobility for poor children, and the pursuit of happiness tell us that the family factor is as important or more than the factors listed above. For instance: In studying county-level predictors of deaths of despair, Gallup economist Jonathan Rothwell concluded that “marriage rate measures are each more important than the college attainment rate, age composition, or racial composition in predicting deaths of despair.”

The fact, then, that Ohio ranks below average on a new measure of family strength, the Family Structure Index, is likely one big reason the Dream is in trouble in the Buckeye state. For instance, only 47.6% of children across the state are growing up in an intact, married family—again, well below the national average of 53 percent. This sets up children across the state for a higher risk of poverty, educational failure, and depression.

Stronger Families, More Successful Kids

Another way to put this is that the Hope and a Future report finds that the fortunes of Ohio children ebb and flow with the fortunes of the family. Specifically:

The child poverty rate is markedly higher among children in Ohio being raised by single mothers compared to married parents. For married-couple families, the child poverty rate was 7%, versus 45% for children in single-mother families. The general pattern held up across racial lines in the state.

The American Dream is much more alive in communities across Ohio where strong families are the norm. Poor children who grew up in Ohio counties with fewer two-parent families, such as Cuyahoga and Hamilton County, only reached about the 40th percentile in household income as 27-year-old adults. Poor children in communities where 85% or more of the households were two-parent families, like Holmes and Putnam County, typically reached above the 50th percentile.

When it comes to education, children from intact families in Ohio are less likely to have their parents contacted for behavioral or learning issues than peers from non-intact families. Specifically, 29% of 7–17-year-olds from non-intact families had behavior issues reported to a parent, versus 17% of children from an intact, married family.
Children are less happy when they are raised outside of an intact, married family. Only 6% of 7–17-year-olds in intact families were reported as being depressed, compared to 14% from disrupted homes.

What Ohio Can Do

What can Ohio do to strengthen and stabilize family life in Ohio? The state government should:

Promote stable family life by requiring the Success Sequence be taught in middle and high schools. The Sequence is about taking three steps—1) getting a high school degree, 2) working full-time in your 20s, and 3) getting married before having any children—as you move into young adulthood. Young men and women who follow it have a 97% chance of avoiding poverty, 86% chance of reaching the middle class or higher, and are four times more likely to be living in an intact family in your 30s.
Make family more affordable, by offering a $1000 child tax credit (CTC) that would focus on working and middle class families and provide a 20% marriage credit to parents who are married. This CTC should not penalize marriage for the middle class.
Eliminate marriage penalties in programs the state controls, from the CTC to child care subsidies. And ask the federal government for waivers to tackle penalties in Medicaid and food stamps.

But strengthening Ohio families is not just about government: civil society and business also have a role to play.

Churches across the state should boost their marriage and family ministries by working with groups like Communio to offer more and better programming to singles and marrieds.
Businesses should take steps to be more family friendly. Given the importance of full-time work and regular schedules for parents, businesses should aim to transition more of their employees onto a regular, full-time schedule. Baby bonuses would also send a valuable signal that they value their employees’ families.

The bottom line: for Ohio, the path to renewing hope and a future for men, women, and children across the state runs first and foremost through the family. If the Buckeye state wishes to offer a “better, richer, and happier life for all” her citizens, she must help them forge stronger and more stable families.

Brad Wilcox is Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, Future of Freedom Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.