Demographic Predictors of Relationship and Marriage Education Participants' Pre- and Post-Program Relational and Individual Functioning (original) (raw)
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2017
Couple Relationship Education (CRE) programs are a prevention resource used to assist adult individuals, couples, and families reduce relationship distress and improve prosocial behaviors. Regional Extension agents (REAs) and other community family life educators (FLEs) who teach CRE are involved in a facilitation process that develops relationships and rapport with their participants similar to other helping relationships. To date, no published research has focused on how CRE may affect the REAs/FLEs who provide the programs through community adult education programs. Informed by relational-cultural theory and the ecological systems perspective, the current study focused on assessing change in ten outcomes measuring REAs/FLEs’ (N = 54) individual, couple, and co-parenting functioning and whether that change differed by gender. Results from repeated measure ANCOVAs indicate REAs/FLEs experience gains across several domains of functioning. There were no differences by gender. Implica...
2007
There is an increasing focus on healthy couple relationships and marriages in family life education and Cooperative Extension programs. The research clearly indicates the ways in which Adler-Baeder, F. et al. What’s love got to do TheForumJournal.org Spring 2007, Vol. 12, No. 1 2 healthy couple/marital functioning benefits individuals, children, and communities. Conversely, unhealthy couple relationships and marriages are clearly linked, both directly and indirectly, to adverse individual, family, and community outcomes. These effects underscore the importance of including relationship and marriage education in family life education programs. Other research using representative samples documents expressed community need and interest in marriage education. With both the demand and the need for relationship and marriage education, consideration should be given to providing effective programming that is both research-informed as well as research-validated. In addition, contextual facto...
Linking Changes in Couple Functioning and Parenting Among Couple Relationship Education Participants
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The current study represents a novel test of parenting outcomes among participants in couple and relationship education (CRE). Utilizing a systems theory framework and empirical linkages between couple functioning and parenting, this study examined the extent to which several parenting dimensions (coparenting conflict, parental involvement, and positive discipline practices) change after CRE participation and, importantly, whether and how these changes are related to changes in dimensions of couple functioning. In a sample of 623 adult parents, diverse in gender, race, and marital status, positive changes were found in the parenting dimensions over time. In addition, levels of change in the couple domain were associated with levels of changes in the parenting domain over the same period of time, with a pattern of stronger links between conceptually similar dimensions of couple functioning and parenting. For the first time in U.S. history, educational efforts to build healthy relationships and marriages are receiving specific support through a federal Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI)
MDRC, New …, 2010
This report presents early implementation and operational lessons from the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation. Funded by the Administration for Children and Families, SHM uses a rigorous research design to test the effectiveness of a new approach to improving outcomes for lowincome children: strengthening the marriages and relationships of their parents as a foundation for family well-being. It also uses implementation research to document and assess how the organizations that were selected to be in the study are implementing the SHM model. The SHM model is for low-income married couples and includes three components: relationship and marriage education workshops that teach strategies for managing conflict and effective communication, supplemental activities that build on workshop themes and skills through educational and social events, and family support services that pair couples with specialized staff who facilitate participation and connect couples with needed services. In the first year of program implementation, SHM providers focused on three main tasks: developing effective marketing and recruitment strategies, keeping couples engaged in the program, and building management structures and systems. Lessons in these three areas from implementation analyses are the focus of this report. Highlights include:
2016
Demographic and relationship quality data were collected from 704 individuals recruited to participate in a randomized study of relationship enhancing interventions. Recruiting at bridal shows produced partners who were more satisfied, earlier in their relationships, and less likely to be parents, with a marginally higher proportion of Latino couples. Radio and television coverage produced more estab-lished couples with higher levels of relationship discord. Self-selection effects revealed that couples from demographic groups at greater risk for divorce (those who had not completed high school, those with children at marriage, and African American couples) were more likely to agree to participate. In contrast, imposing a set of common selection criteria served to exclude couples from demographic risk groups and selected for couples with higher marital quality. Implications for recruiting couples to participate in preventive interventions are outlined.
Marriage and relationship education: Recent research findings
Family matters, 2016
The ways in which intimate couple relationships1 are entered into and sustained have altered significantly over the last few decades (Moloney and Weston, 2012), with many unprecedented changes to how couples form and dissolve relationships and make decisions to have children (Weston and Qu, 2013). Couples choosing to live together without being married, getting married at increasingly later ages and having greater access to divorce, are some of the trends in relationships that are important to consider when designing programs and delivering services to couples and families (Weston and Qu, 2013).
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2006
Demographic and relationship quality data were collected from 704 individuals recruited to participate in a randomized study of relationship enhancing interventions. Recruiting at bridal shows produced partners who were more satisfied, earlier in their relationships, and less likely to be parents, with a marginally higher proportion of Latino couples. Radio and television coverage produced more established couples with higher levels of relationship discord. Self-selection effects revealed that couples from demographic groups at greater risk for divorce (those who had not completed high school, those with children at marriage, and African American couples) were more likely to agree to participate. In contrast, imposing a set of common selection criteria served to exclude couples from demographic risk groups and selected for couples with higher marital quality. Implications for recruiting couples to participate in preventive interventions are outlined.