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The article presents an edited version of a paper presented to the Sixth Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference "Changing Families, Challenging Futures," held in Melbourne, Victoria on 25-29, November 1998, concerning attachment theory and marital adjustment. Pre-marriage education has a long history in Australia and there is a wide range of pre-marriage and relationship education programs offered by religious and secular organisations. Some of these programs, through raising awareness and teaching relationship skills, aim to prepare young couples for marriage, while others provide opportunities for married couples to identify their strengths and develop ways of dealing with current and potential problems. Practitioners in both the education and counselling fields draw on a vast body of theory and knowledge about relationships which provides both descriptive and explanatory information, and experiential learning tools and resources. A rapidly expanding field of research, attachment theory, provides a framework for explaining how relationships form, develop, and break down, and offers educators and counsellors tools for informing and challenging those preparing for, and experiencing difficulties in, marriage. INSET: Attachment theory and research..

The article offers news briefs related to family health in Australia. The Centre for Child and Family Development will offer a four-unit course and advance studies in child and family development in April 2008 in Melbourne. The 29th Australian Family Therapy Conference will be held on October 1-3, 2008 in Brisbane. Mark Galliker, Madeleine Grivel and Margot Klein joined the debate on co-dependency, comparing the wives of men with and without alcohol problems.

This article focuses on the Australian Institute of Family Studies' Web site. The Web site provides Institute research, information projects and publications, and access to Institute databases and resource collections. A feature of the Institute's Web site for the past two months has been the Institute's conference, "Changing Families, Challenging Futures," held in Melbourne, Victoria in November 1998. The Institute's Web site offers a full listing of Institute publications with descriptions, prices and information for ordering print copies. A growing collection of papers is also directly available from the Web site. Users should select "Publications" and click on "Current Publications," to find works arranged in subject groupings and also a list of titles available in full text. Child protection and youth suicide prevention are the foci of two specialist information projects hosted by the Institute. To provide access to the current literature in these subject areas a series of regularly updated bibliographies has been compiled.

The article discusses several developments concerning the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The institute invites registrations from people wishing to attend the sixth Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference, to be held at the Carlton Crest Hotel in Melbourne from November 25-27,1998. The conference will provide a valuable forum for those interested or involved in family research, the development of family policy, or providing services to families in Australia. The conference will focus on family issues in Australia and feature the presentation and discussion of findings of the Institute's own studies, along with work from other researchers, government bodies, service providers and community organizations. It reports that over 150 presentations will be made during the course of the conference. The conference will include keynote addresses, papers, symposia, display and discussion poster presentations, and workshops. All have been grouped into the following broad themes. The article also presents information on family values and family relations, effects of divorce on family members, demographic change, life courses and family futures, and others.