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Brian Duff, Ph.D., ����ֱ�� associate professor of political science, was interviewed for a May 7, 2012 story on the increase in births to single mothers in Maine.

The number of marriages in Maine is down 10 percent over a decade, married births down 21 percent and births to unwed mothers up 21 percent, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Data, Research and Vital Statistics office.

Duff told the newspaper: "There’s no doubt this trend is going to make it very, very hard for a lot of Maine families to get by without some social support. We can offer that social support to toddlers who need good pre-K or we can offer the social support to teenagers who get in trouble with the law; it is probably cheaper if you give it to the toddlers.”

He also noted that studies show that in single and cohabitating households, measures of physical and mental health, future incarceration rates and the likelihood of graduating from college are poorer than in married households.

Duff, who has spent the past year as the Coastal Studies Scholar at Bowdoin College during a sabbatical, is the author of The Parent as Citizen: A Democratic Dilemma. He has also published research on feminist theory, voting, and the politics of race and ethnicity.