FAMILY AND MARRIAGE: Little is known about how to promote marriage or strengthen families through welfare policies.

Promoting marriage and supporting two-parent families are two of the four expressly stated goals of TANF. Yet states have all but ignored these, preferring instead to focus on TANF's goals to increase work and reduce welfare dependency, in part because little was known about what works to promote and sustain marriage among single individuals. But what about the indirect effects of state reform practices on marriage and families? The few findings in this area are tantalizing but not definitive.

Few programs increased the likelihood that a single parent would marry. Intriguingly, however, one earnings supplement program did have a large and lasting effect on the likelihood that two-parent families would stay to-gether. More Several programs reduced the incidence of domestic violence experienced by female single-parent household heads, who make up about 90 percent of all adult welfare recipients - possibly because work meant less reliance on others or less time spent at home or because welfare systems are now offering more services for victims of domestic violence. More Noncustodial parents, most of them fathers, have an important role to play in efforts to increase the self-sufficiency and well-being of families with wel-fare-dependent children. A program that combined employment services and peer support for noncustodial fathers with more responsive child support rules increased child support payments and, for less employable and less in-volved fathers, raised employment and parental involvement, respectively. More