Should single moms really be saying, "I do"?

• Position: YOUR LIFE

As the U.S. marks the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, one recent weapon in the battle has been a disappointing failure. The Federal government has made marriage promotion among single mothers a key part of its continuing effort to fight poverty, but that approach has missed the mark because marriage does not provide the same benefits to poor, single mothers as it does for others, according to Kristi Williams, associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, Columbus.

"If the goal of marriage promotion efforts was truly to lower poverty rates and improve the well-being of unmarried parents and their children, then it is time to take a different approach," Williams insists. That could include preventing unwanted births and giving more child care support for single mothers, she indicates.

It is easy to see why marriage promotion is appealing: about 46% of children in single-mother households were living in poverty in 2013, compared to 11% of children living with two married parents. Marriage promotion became an official U.S. policy in 1996 when Congress passed welfare reform legislation that allowed states to spend welfare funds on a range of efforts to get single mothers to marry. It has continued--with some modifications--to this day.

"The flaw in this approach is the assumption that all marriages are equally beneficial. For instance, research shows that single mothers living in impoverished neighborhoods are likely to marry men who will not help them get out of poverty. These men are likely to have children from other partnerships, lack a high school diploma, and have been incarcerated or have substance abuse problems, Williams notes.

Those who do marry usually do not stay that way. One study found that nearly two-thirds of single mothers who married were divorced by the time they reached age 44. "Single mothers who marry and later divorce are worse off economically than single mothers who never marry," Williams contends.

Promoting marriage among...