For Richer or Poorer: What Dating, Living Together, Marriage, and Divorce Have to do with Happiness and Success Today
Featuring Skip Burzumato
November 16, 2023
Skyline Middle School Auditorium
Harrisonburg, Virginia
A Café Veritas Presentation
thecafeveritas.org
Burzumato first explores the latest research and trends in America as it pertains to marriage, divorce, cohabitation, family formation, etc., relying on sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, The Brookings Institution, and the General Social Survey.
He next considers what may be the greatest issue facing our society as it pertains to family: that there is a great divide along socioeconomic status and educational lines for almost every family and child outcome variable measured. Burzumato here relies on research from several important works published in recent years by Andrew Cherlin, Robert Putnam, Susan Brown, and, most recently, Melissa Kearney. The data suggest that what is most important for child wellbeing and positive outcomes is that children grow up with two parents, and that family form is secondary.
Skip Burzumato received a B.A. and M.A. in sociology from the University of Memphis and an
M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary. Before joining the Bridgewater College faculty in 2014,
he was the Associate Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia,
as well as the Executive Director of the Institute for Family Studies. His research interests
include marriage, family, courtship and dating, food systems and hunger issues in America,
and the social history of jazz music.