President Bush’s plans to promote marriage, especially among poor young Americans, is likely doomed to failure, according to this article in the sociology journal Social Problems. (Thanks to PRB for the link.) Helping unmarried women to avoid unplanned pregnancies turns out to be a better way to promote marriage. Once they become mothers, unwed women have a dramatically lower chance of getting married, according to Isabell Sawhill of the Brookings Institution. Promoting marriage is a good idea, because declining marriage rates are a major cause of worsening child poverty rates in the United States, according to Sawhill.