As the number of people choosing to marry has plunged during recent decades, the tally of children living with one parent and having limited or no contact with the other has soared. Attuned to the hazards that such separations impose upon children but also upon parents who, studies show, fare physically and emotionally better in a thriving partnership, researchers around the country have been eyeing anew the state of marriage and the wellness of families outside of the marital construct. Hampton University, as one example, inaugurated in September a National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting by hosting its two-day National Summit on Marriage, Parenting and Families. There, Hampton researchers released their "marriage index," citing what they view as troublesome trends. Furthermore, for its part, the Princeton University-based Fragile Families and Child WellBeing study, launched in 2007 and continuing through 2010, is probing and collecting data from 20 cities on the lives of 5,000 children, two-thirds of them born to unmarried parents. Concurrently, related research from Yale University, released at the American Sociological Association's annual meeting in August, re-confirmed the much-bemoaned marriage prospects for high-achieving Black women. The complexity of issues surrounding Black marriage and family is fueling more research but also reframing the national discussion about family. Gaining momentum since the 1990s welfare overhaul, that reframing takes into account racial and class distinctions. It aims to help establish policies and programs that ultimately enhance living conditions for parents and for children adversely affected by nonmarriage or noncontact with one or both of their parents and to uphold strong two-parent households as a worthy model.