Sampson does not believe family structure explains everything: the data showed that in immigrant neighborhoods, even individuals who are not in married households are 15 percent less likely to engage in crime.

Moreover, research also indicates that children in and outside of married households in the United States are typically spending more time with their mothers than they did in the 1960's.

They also earned less than a married woman operating in a married household or in business with her husband.

According to the New York Times, "In 2001, wives earned more than their spouses in almost a third of married households where the wife worked."

Children raised in married households do much better by every social, economic and educational indicator.

Some of that, of course, reflects the declining number of children living in married households.

Although the most popular, married households decreased over this time period.

It is not irrational to think that heterosexual singles have a markedly greater probability of eventually establishing a married household and, thus, providing their adopted children with a stable, dual-gender parenting environment.

"The U.S. fiscal system is very strongly encouraging one spouse in low-wage married households to stay out of the labor force," the economists write, acknowledging that this spouse is usually a woman.

It has been regarded as contribution of her family to the married household's expenses.