Elizabeth Marquardt
Key Player

Vice President for Family Studies, Institute for American Values; Director, Center for Marriage and Families, Institute for American ValuesElizabeth Marquardt is Vice President for Family Studies and Director of the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values (IAV). She holds a Masters Degree in Divinity and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in history and women’s studies from Wake Forest University.

Marquardt authored the 2005 book Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, the first nationally-representative study of grown children of divorced parents. Marquardt argues that there is no such thing as a “good divorce.”

In her study, just 44 percent of those with divorced parents strongly agreed that they felt emotionally safe as children, compared to 79 percent of those with married parents. Only one-third said that when they were young and needed comfort they went to one or both parents, compared to two-thirds of those with married parents.

Marquardt’s book was reviewed or featured in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show,” CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” and Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”