News release: “Drawing on the latest national data, a new report concludes that marriage is in trouble among so-called “Middle Americans,” defined as the 58 percent of adults who have a high school diploma and possibly some post-secondary education, but no four-year college degree. The 2010 edition of the State of Our Unions report was released today by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values. New data indicate that trends in non-marital childbearing, divorce and marital quality in Middle America increasingly resemble those of the poor, many of whose marriages are fragile. However, among the highly educated and affluent, marriage is stable and appears to be getting even stronger – yet more evidence of America’s “marriage gap.” The report is the first to address the causes of the observed retreat from marriage in Middle America. It finds that shifts in marriage attitudes, increases in unemployment and declines in religious attendance are among the trends driving the retreat.”