All of a sudden, with global temper tantrums and economic markets in trouble, there are more and more concerns about the state of the family.

Kinda like after 9/11 when we all frantically called our loved ones and stayed home because family mattered... all of a sudden.

Will we survive? Are we resilient enough to take the hit? Could it be that societies have reached a tipping point?

Many are questioning their so-called freedoms-to-choose and are finally seeing the 'big picture' rather than their own petty individualistic lives.

Me, me, me, me only works for so long and then... we realize that what matters is us, us, us.

There is something about being part of a family unit that drives us to be better people than we can be alone. There is a history with these peculiar people that no one else has and a legacy passed down to our children and grandchildren that is unique and personal.

We are hardwired to connect with other people and our very brain development as humans is dependent on those connections. Whatever those connections are - chaotic or ordered - they impact our development from birth to adulthood.

Noted conservative and liberal social science scholars worldwide have looked at the same data and agree that family structure matters for child well-being and that statistically the best family structure includes bio-parents in a healthy life-long marriage.

This week, the latest edition of Why Marriage Matters, Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences was released, with bold perspective on the state of the family and marriage. Marriage and Healthy Family Formation professionals have clung to the earlier editions of Why Marriage Matters for science-based facts and analysis regarding fragile families. Some of their newer conclusions may surprise you.

Divorce is no longer the largest threat to marriage and family. After decades of high divorce rates, divorce is now at 'normal' pre-surge levels. Children now born to married couples are more likely to grow up with both of their parents. The problem is that fear of divorce is causing parents and their children to abandon marriage in favor of cohabitation.

Cohabitation is now the predominant couple union and 24% of all children are born into these short term relationships, outnumbering those born to single mothers. On average, cohabiting relationships only last 1½ years producing children and future cohabitation. Another 20% of children will spend time in a cohabiting 'family' with unrelated adults and children after their parents' divorce.

Did you know that up to 90% of cohabiting relationships fail? Only 10% of cohabiting couples marry and then 50% of those couples will divorce.

Today, more than 40% of children experience cohabitation and do significantly worse on all measures of child well-being than children raised by their married bio-parents. Not only do they suffer socially, educationally, psychologically and economically, but they are more likely to be physically, sexually and emotionally abused.

What are we doing? What will happen when these dysfunctional children grow up, cohabit and produce more and more dysfunctional children? We are already seeing the results.

Who thought this was a good idea? No wonder our world is in chaos!

Baby Boomers (liberal and conservative) need to seriously re-think encouraging their children to cohabit because it does not prevent the pain of breaking up (divorce) and it complicates the lives of everyone involved, including Boomer Grandparents.

Wake up! Policy makers, scholars, civic, business, and religious leaders, professionals, and parents need to study Why Marriage Matters, Thirty Conclusions from the Social Sciences.

It was written for all of us.

For further reading...

The marriage gap that is destroying Middle America

Britain's deadbeatest Dad

British Riots: A Warning to the World