Premarital and Marriage Education
Mission
“My administration will give unprecedented support
to strengthening marriages. Many good programs help couples
who want to get married and stay married.”
— President Bush, February 26, 2002
ACF recently launched the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative
to help couples who choose marriage for themselves
develop the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain
healthy marriages. The Initiative’s concept
of healthy marriage is guided by Lewis and Gossett (1999),
who define eight essential characteristics of a healthy marriage:
- Both partners participate in the definition of the relationship
- There is a strong marital bond characterized by levels
of both closeness and autonomy
- The spouses are interested in each other’s thoughts
and feelings
- The expression of feelings is encouraged
- The inevitable conflicts that do occur do not escalate
or lead to despair
- Problem-solving skills are well developed
- Most basic values are shared
- The ability to deal with change and stress is well developed.
Overview
Marriage education, a relatively new approach to preventing
marital distress and breakdown, is based on the premise that
couples can learn how to build and maintain
successful, stable marriages. Couples can learn how to increase
the behaviors that make a marriage successful and decrease
those associated with marital distress and divorce. Strong,
healthy marriages have benefits for couples and their children.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) concluded that
destructive parental conflict is one of the generic risk factors
for child and adult mental health problems. Mismanaged conflict
predicts both marital distress and negative effects for children.
Conflicts at home can even lead to decreased work productivity,
especially for men.
The marriage education approach is based on years of research
into the characteristics that distinguish marriages that succeed
from those that fail. The difference between couples that
survive and thrive in marriage and those that do not lies
primarily in how couples understand and accept the fact that
at times they will disagree and how they handle their inevitable
differences. Behaviors and attitudes that predict success
can be effectively and economically taught to couples, regardless
of background, and at any stage of their relationship.
Along with the skills that teach couples how to communicate
more effectively, manage conflict, and work together as a
team, the courses also teach the benefits of marriage for
couples and their children and what to expect in the course
of marriage. Some programs have been adapted for specific
populations (e.g., teenagers).
Program length ranges from several hours to semester-long
courses. Most are 8 to 20 hours long and are taught over a
weekend or through weekly classes. They are delivered in a
variety of settings, including classrooms, community centers,
childbirth clinics, houses of worship, courts, prisons, extension
agencies, schools, and military bases. In addition to classes,
workshops, and seminars, premarital and marriage education
efforts can utilize assessment inventories and meetings with
mentor couples.
Results
Numerous studies suggest that marital outcomes can be predicted
with a high degree of accuracy based primarily on aspects
of a couples communication and ability to manage conflict.
Some of the more popular programs (e.g., PREP) have been studied
extensively. Longitudinal studies (some funded by NIMH) clearly
demonstrate that couples can learn and use relationship skills,
with some studies of PREP suggesting that participation affects
both marital satisfaction and stability. Interventions seem
especially effective for higher-risk couples.
Other Benefits
In addition to strengthening relationships, marriage education
can benefit couples interested in marriage in other ways:
- Marriage education highlights the benefits of strong
and healthy marriages for both adults and children. These
include being better providers, living longer, earning and
saving more money, and being less reliant on government
services, such as welfare, health care, and mental health
care.
- Marriage education provides a roadmap about what to expect
in marriage, including challenges such as the birth of the
first child, different philosophies on parenting, and negotiating
work and family responsibilities.
- Marriage education can help couples better understand
principles about commitment, acceptance, forgiveness, and
sacrifice that are known to be associated with healthy relationships.
- Marriage education teaches individuals about risk factors
so participants can decide whether or not a marriage they
are considering is a good choice.
Additional Information:
For more information, or to request technical assistance,
visit the ACF website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/key.html.
Or contact Bill Coffin, Special Assistant for Marriage Education
at (202) 260-1550.
Resources mentioned here are not all inclusive. Their mention
should not be construed as implying, in any way, that the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or its Administration
for Children and Families endorses or favors any organization,
company, institution, person, activities, products or services.
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