There has been a revolution in the way many people think about marriage. Many scholars have moved from a medical approach (watching for symptoms, considering diagnoses, treating disease) to a wellness approach (cultivating strengths, tolerating some limitations, preventing problems). One result of this revolution is less focus on problem-centered communication and increased emphasis on relationship […]
This brief cites research that indicates children who grow up in healthy married, two-parent families do better on a host of outcomes than those who do not, and that many social problems affecting children, families, and communities could be prevented if more children grew up in healthy, married families. The federal Healthy Marriage Initiative is […]
It is a fair question to ask: “”Why a survey on married Arkansans?”” Arkansas has one of the highest divorce rates in country; however, beyond these alarming statistics, this survey was prompted by additional concerns found in local and national data that encouraged marriage educators and providers to work together. In an exploratory stage of […]
This fact sheet describes the federal Community Healthy Marriage Initiative, an initiative designed to help couples who choose marriage develop the skills and knowledge necessary to form and sustain healthy marriages. Eight essential characteristics of a healthy marriage are listed, an overview of marriage education is provided, and the benefits of marriage education are discussed.
This report summarizes the proceedings of a conference held at the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Virginia, October 5-7, 2009, that brought together 35 leaders and practitioners from the youth development and relationship education fields to discuss the needs of disadvantaged youth and the capacity of the field to deliver relationship education to this population. […]
The purpose of this document is to assist you in understanding what Marriage Education is, to explore its potential role over time, and to encourage a wide range of people and organizations to be engaged in offering some form of Marriage Education within their communities, religious groups, and globally. (Author abstract)
Estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) indicate that in 1999 persons age 12 or older experienced about 791,210 violent crimes by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women: During 1999 females experienced 671,110 (85%) such violent victimizations; males, 120,100(15%). Younger women generally had […]
This paper was first published as Chapter 15 in Couples in Conflict, edited by Alan Booth, Ann C. Crouter, and Mari Clements (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001). It sketches the broad outlines of the landscape of the current policy response to different types of couple conflict, and to the separate but related issue of domestic violence. […]
The current study examined whether the effects of positive expectations on changes in marital satisfaction over the first 4 years of marriage were moderated by the nature of spouses’ interaction behaviors and relationship attributions. Consistent with predictions, when spouses’ skills were most positive, positive expectations predicted more stable satisfaction over time whereas less positive expectations […]
This article discusses the effects of cohabitation and marriage on binge drinking, cigarette smoking and marijuana use in the U.S. The authors argue that marriage causes reductions in risky behaviors like binge drinking and marijuana use (especially for men), but has little effect on smoking. Less consistent are the effects of cohabitation on risky behaviors. […]