What Is the Success Sequence?

Families, communities, and nations are stronger when the rising generation understands what the success sequence is and how it works. In an article published in the Deseret News, Brad Wilcox wrote, “The science could not be clearer.” Wilcox is a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia and the director of the National Marriage Project. 

So, what is the science so clear about? Wilcox wrote, “On average, the children of married parents are more likely to experience happier, healthier and more successful lives.” Wilcox then quoted the words of Melissa Kearney, Brookings Institution scholar, in her book The Two-Parent Privilege: “The decline in the share of U.S. children living in a two-parent family over the past 40 years has not been good – for children, for families, or for the United States.”

If children living with their married biological parents do so much better than other children, what policies should the state and federal government make to advance marriage and families? In the words of Wilcox, “what can [policymakers] do to keep families strong and stable?” Wilcox counseled as follows:

As I have written previously with others, a big step Utah could take is to educate its young people about what is known as the success sequence. This three-pronged sequence encourages young adults to get at least a high school degree, work full time in their 20s, and marry before they have any children. Our recommendations include incorporating the success sequence into public school curricula in Utah, including it in premarital educational information and broadcasting PSAs about it.

According to Wilcox, there are leftist critics like Matt Bruenig, president of the People’s Policy Project, who do not believe that marriage is important – “all that really matters is having a full-time worker in the household – that there is no special magic about marriage when it comes to protecting families from poverty.” Others, like Nicole Sussner Rodgers, the executive director of Family Story, reason that “marriage does not provide any unique advantage for the welfare of children.”

Wilcox wrote that such criticisms are “unmoored from the latest social science.” He claims, “It could scarcely be clearer that marriage per se matters for families’ economic well-being, contra Bruenig, and for the well-being of children, contra Rodgers.” Wilcox then gives some facts.

Money: “Research shows that millennials who follow the success sequence are 60% less likely to experience poverty and have twice the odds of achieving the American dream, even controlling for their work history….”

Child well-being – stability: “We know that kids thrive on stable routines with stable caregivers, and married parents typically provide a much more stable environment than cohabiting or single-parent households….”

Those raised in single-parent households, including this author, can still love and appreciate their own parents and families while recognizing that the data is clear: On average, marriage matters to our kids.

It’s for that reason the best pro-family approach for policymakers in Utah is to continue to figure out ways to reinforce the state’s outstanding record as the state where the married family is strongest. And one of the best ways to achieve that end is by promoting the success sequence. Utah’s youth deserve to know this proven pathway to a better life.

Wilcox clearly showed that the success sequence – high school diploma, work in 20s, and marry before children – is important for the rising generation to understand. The more young people who understand the success sequence, the more strong families, strong communities, and strong nations there will be.