This article presents reliability and validity data for the 15-item ENRICH (evaluation and nurturing relationship issues, communication and happiness) Marital Satisfaction (EMS) Scale. The scale was found to be reliable and to have strong correlations with other measures of marital satisfaction and moderate relationships with measures of family satisfaction and consideration of divorce. The EMS […]

This paper investigates whether the health of children affects the likelihood that their parents divorce. This topic is relevant to the debate over whether the economic status of families affects children’s health: if the poor health of children promotes greater family dissolution, then children’s health problems could be the cause rather than the result of […]

Marriage and couples’ education is a family issue that is gaining greater attention by family studies professionals, state and Federal policymakers, and the media. At the same time that marriage and couples’ education is being recognized as a national issue, increasing numbers of Cooperative Extension System (CES) educators are being asked to provide workshops and […]

Eighty-three couples were stratified into groups at high and low risk for relationship distress and randomized to either the Self-Regulatory Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (Self-PREP) or a control condition. As predicted, there were differential effects of Self-PREP on high-risk and low-risk couples. Because of low statistical power, results must be interpreted cautiously, but at […]

Associations among prenatal expectations, the extent to which expectations were confirmed or disconfirmed, and trajectories of marital satisfaction over the transition to parenthood were assessed 7-11 times in a sample of newlywed couples. Piecewise growth curve analyses were conducted to examine levels of marital satisfaction at the beginning of marriage and rates of change over […]

Research and programming are interrelated. Good research leads to good programming and good programs can lead to good research. This article describes methods to incorporate research into marriage and relationship programming and ways to generate new research. Specifically, research informed programming and programmatic research are discussed. A process to develop and modify programs using existing […]

The marriage and family therapy (MFT) field has made tremendous progress in acknowledging the importance of multicultural training. Nevertheless, multiculturally committed MFT trainers still struggle with issues of multicultural course design and delivery. In a subject so controversial and which requires a great deal of experience and skills to teach, little has been done in […]

Making positive and sustainable impacts on current and future marriages is more likely to occur when the community is actively engaged. Effective community collaborations create cultures and support mechanisms that help individuals and couples acquire the necessary skills and resources to form healthy and stable marriages. This article describes the function of community collaborations and […]

Coalitions that are interested in taking action on marriage-related issues need to have a good understanding of trends in marriage and divorce in their area. For example, coalitions that aim to reduce their divorce rates need reliable data on the prevalence of divorce in their area. Furthermore, it is important to know what data is […]