California's Democrats and Republicans Surprisingly Agree on Marriage Issues

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While California liberals and conservatives have spent two years on opposing sides of the marriage definition issue, a new analysis released by California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) reveals that Californians with differing political party affiliations overwhelmingly agree on a number of marriage and divorce-related issues.

In an unprecedented in-depth study, The State of California's Unions, commissioned by CHMC to determine views on marriage, divorce and marriage education across the state, four out of five respondents indicated their political affiliations, which enabled a revealing new analysis across political lines.  This revealed more common ground on matters associated with marriage than expected, including:

1) The vast majority of Californians surveyed see divorce as a serious national problem regardless of party affiliation [91.8% Republican, 83.6% Independent, 79.7% Democrat];

2) There is bi-partisan support that couples should get a "discount on the marriage license fee if they participate in at least eight hours of premarital education;" [88.5% (R), 86.4% (I), 85.4% (D)];

3) Four out of five people agree that a married couple with children should be required to attend marriage education classes or couple's counseling before the divorce is granted [84.8% (R), 81.3% (I), 80.3% (D)];

4) Many divorced respondents believe that their divorce negatively affected their children to a great or some extent [65.6% (R), 72.4% (I), 60.7% (D)];

5) The majority of those divorced report that they or their spouse could have worked harder to save the marriage  [(59.4% (R), 65.3% (I), 64.8% (D)].

Dennis Stoica, CHMC President, states, "We are encouraged by the research results because they show how much Californians value family stability, and we know that Relationship and Marriage Education plays a big role in helping couples have this in their lives.  Much like our state, our executive leadership at CHMC is also politically divided, yet we unite on essential marriage and societal issues, including the fundamental importance of a healthy family and its benefits for children, couples, and society."

For the past four years, CHMC has taught proven relationship-building skills to more than 44,000 Californians through Relationship and Marriage Education classes for all ages and stages.  A statewide clearinghouse of Relationship and Marriage Education classes, as well as The State of California's Unions and the new political analysis are available at www.CaMarriage.com.

SOURCE California Healthy Marriages Coalition