A comprehensive framework for marriage education* (original) (raw)
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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).
The Reach of Marriage Education
2015
In this chapter we have two major aims. The first focus is to describe the development and evalu-ation of a version of the Prevention and Relationship Education Program (PREP) that is delivered to couples as well as individual members of a couple. Second, we’ll provide our initial ideas about applying some of the core dimensions of PREP to Islamic cultures in general and Muslim couples in particular. Through both aims, we seek to confront the challenges of applying a research-based intervention to help couples in diverse populations and cultures. Preparation of the manuscript was supported by a grant from the Administration for Children and Family (36302) awarded to Howard Markman and Martha Wadsworth.
Meanings in Marriage Education
2010
iv In this study I explore how FamilyLife, a Christian organization committed to marriage education, stories marriage and the communicative behaviors that are emphasized. I completed a review of the current communication literature to allow for an understanding of scholarly framework for the communication behaviors that are specific for building and maintaining satisfying marital relationships as well as the value of marriage education programs. I utilized a thematic narrative analysis to examine 85 articles (Marriage Memos) in order to determine the marriage and communication values that emerged throughout FamilyLife‘s narrative of marriage. Similarities found in the Marriage Memos were identified and categorized into twelve primary categories. The primary themes for marriage values were: blueprint for marriage, faith, commitment, family, investment, selflessness, and companionship. The primary categories for the communication values were: listening, power of tongue, cooperation, g...
Does marriage and relationship education work? A meta-analytic study
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2008
In this meta-analytic study, the authors examined the efficacy of marriage and relationship education (MRE) on 2 common outcomes: relationship quality and communication skills. A thorough search produced 86 codable reports that yielded 117 studies and more than 500 effect sizes. The effect sizes for relationship quality for experimental studies ranged from d ϭ .30 to .36, while the communication skills effect sizes ranged from d ϭ .43 to .45. Quasi-experimental studies generated smaller effect sizes, but these appeared to be due to pretest group differences. Moderate-dosage programs produced larger effect sizes than did low-dosage programs. For communication skills, published studies had larger effects than those of unpublished studies at follow-up; there were no publication differences for relationship quality. There was no evidence of a gender difference. Unfortunately, a lack of racial/ethnic and economic diversity in the samples prevented reliable conclusions about the effectiveness of MRE for disadvantaged couples, a crucial deficit in the body of research. In addition, intervention outcomes important to policy makers, such as relationship stability and aggression, rarely have been addressed.
Qualitative Sociology, 2018
Since 2000, U.S. federal and state governments have devoted almost $1 billion to marriage and relationship education (MRE) programs that teach the skills and attitudes associated with satisfying, long-term marriages. While advocates argue that MRE is an effective way to counter the negative social outcomes resulting from marital decline, critics contend that it is an ideological policy focused on reinstating the moral primacy of heterosexually married families. Drawing on two ethnographies we argue that this debate misses a key feature of MRE. These interventions simultaneously trace structural issues to individualistic tendencies and assume that social problems related to marriage demand individual-level solutions. We consider how this dilemma played out in social spaces where marriage and relationship education policy was discussed and implemented and how MRE advocates navigated this tension, specifically by articulating, codifying, and teaching new individualized norms for marital behavior. This qualitative case study illustrates a common tension in the framing of social problems in the U.S.: Structural issues are translated into individual deficiencies even when the problem is identified as individualism, thereby limiting the scope of perceived solutions.
Incorporating Relationship Education into a College Class on Marriage
Family Science Review
Many couples experience difficulty from relationship distress and/or divorce. Some research suggests that teaching relationship education (RE) to emerging adults before many enter long-term committed relationships can reduce relationship difficulty and promote healthy relationship behaviors. Yet, very little investigation has been conducted with RE and emerging adults. This study incorporated important concepts from the Within My Reach RE curriculum into an existing college class on marriage and comparisons were made with a class who did not receive RE on several variables. Results showed that those in the revised class showed significant gains in relationship confidence, insight, and healthy decision-making over the control class. Implications for practitioners and researchers are provided based on study findings.
Best Practice in Couple Relationship Education
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 2003
Relationship education is widely available to couples and is intended to reduce the prevalence of relationship distress, divorce, and the associated personal and social costs. To realize the potential benefits of couple relationship education, it needs to be evidence-based, offered in ways that attract couples at high-risk for relationship problems, and focused on factors that put couples at high-risk for future relationship problems. Marriage is one of the most nearly universal of human institutions. No other touches so intimately the life of practically every member of the earth's population. (Terman, 1938, p. 1) 1 think a man and woman should choose each other for life, for the simple reason that a long life with all its accidents is barely enough for a man and a woman to understand each other; and in this case to understand is to love. (John Butler Yeats) Couple relationship education' developed from the work of religious marriage celebrants such as priests, rabbis, and ministers who offered brief counsel to marrying couples in the hope of strengthening those marriages (Hunt, Hof, & DeMaria, 1998). In the early 1950s, religious organizations, and in particular the Catholic Church, began to offer structured relationship education programs in a group format for marrying couples (Hunt et al., 1998). In the mid-1950s in the United States (Hunt et al., 1998), Australia (Harris, Simons, Willis, & Barrie, 1992), and other Western countries, secular organizations also began to offer programs. By the late 1990s, between one quarter and one third of marrying couples in the United States, Australia, and Britain were attending some form of relationship education (
Distressed Couples and Marriage Education
Professionals generally believe that couples who choose to attend marriage education programs are not as distressed as are clinical couples and that distressed couples are not good candidates for marriage education. We examined these assumptions in 129 married couples who enrolled in a PAIRS, Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills , marriage education course. Using the Enriching Relationship Issues, Communication and Happiness Inventory typology classification with other measures of relationship adjustment, participants were classified as highly distressed, conflicted, and devitalized. Findings suggest that highly distressed married couples are among those who seek a marriage education experience. Implications for marriage education providers are discussed.