Designed for marriage practitioners, this brief explains the importance of commitment in marriage. Strategies that can be shared with couples to enhance their commitment are listed and include: create a commitment statement, greet each other personally and physically each day, talk and stay connected about hopes, dreams, and stresses, spend both quality and quantity time […]
This brief explains that faith-based marriage promotion and education programs incorporate tenets of religious faith into operating principles regarding issues of marriage and family life. Key components of the programs are described and specific programs are profiled, including: Marriage Savers, Catholic Engaged Encounter, PAIRS, PREP, Reconciling God’s Way, the Third Option, the Caring Couples Network, […]
This brief defines forgiveness and then explains the difficulties facilitators may encounter when teaching forgiveness in marriage and relationship (MRE) education classes. Strategies that can be shared with couples are listed and include: reflect on your mutual behaviors during the day and focus on actions that are life-giving and kind, spend little time reflecting on […]
This brief lists resources available to assist healthy marriage programs in delivering and enhancing services to Hispanic couples and families. Information is provided on national organizations and State and local Healthy Marriage Initiatives and coalitions. Excerpts are then provided from various working papers developed by the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative to support program administrators as […]
Designed for marriage practitioners, this brief explains the influence of maturity on a person’s ability to truly commit to a relationship for life and understand that commitment implies giving up all other partner choices. The impact of maturity on the ability to forgive, to take personal responsibility, and to communicate effectively is also discussed, and […]
The National Healthy Marriage Academy, held January 8 and 9 in Arlington, VA, provided an opportunity for representatives from several States to learn more about the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Healthy Marriage Initiative. ACF planned this Academy as an opportunity to answer several questions about the initiative, including: – What is the Healthy […]
Designed for marriage practitioners, this brief explains the importance of trust in relationships and offers strategies for teaching the value of trust to couples. The keys to trust are explained and include investing time in each other, reliability, understanding, sacrifice, and thankfulness.
The United States federal government releases data on rates of marriage and divorce in most years, along with information on the percentage of children living with two parents and single parents. Stories based on these statistics often appear in the media. Many people, however, are confused by these data–how these numbers should be interpreted and […]
Men and women who are incarcerated face substantial challenges to maintaining their family relationships, both intimate and parenting. These difficulties continue as they reenter into society after their incarceration. Absence from or low levels of contact between partners due to incarceration places strain on marriages and serious romantic relationships. Parental absence due to incarceration can […]
This Collection by Topic is designed to help practitioners, administrators and advocates in the fields of Marriage and Relationship Education (MRE) and Domestic Violence (DV) – as well as those interested in these fields – understand and learn about research, strategies and tools to address domestic violence issues. This collection is based upon new research […]