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The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of parent–child relationships in stepfamilies and explore their impact on emerging adult (EA) outcomes. Six classes of parent–child relationships ...

Guided by the Stages of Change (SOC) model, we explored relationship-repair behaviors among those thinking about divorce, employing a recent national longitudinal survey of married individuals (N = 745). Person-centered analyses explored whether there were distinct typologies of relationship-repair behaviors. We found four distinct classes: Intense Seekers (6%), who engaged at high levels of all kinds of repair behaviors, including professional services; Moderate-fading Seekers (14%), who engaged in moderate levels of various repair behaviors, including professional services, but did not sustain that behavior over a year; and Minimal-private Seekers (42%) and Private-sustained Seekers (38%), who eschewed professional services and engaged in low-to-moderate personal and private repair behaviors. We discuss possible applications of the SOC model to the divorce decision-making process and conclude with implications for practice, including the need to allocate greater attention to personal and self-help interventions that match the way most people try to repair their relationships.

Little research has evaluated the associations of mindfulness training on couple romantic and sexual well-being and no research has examined the role of sexual mindfulness within an intervention. W...

Introduction The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis investigating the consistency and strength of relations between prosocial behavior, externalizing behaviors, and internalizing symptoms from preadolescence (i.e., 1–9 years) to late adolescence (i.e., 19–25 years). This study directly addresses inconsistencies and gaps in the available literature by providing the field with a detailed, synthesized description of these associations. Method Fifty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, containing 742 independent correlational effect sizes. Statistical information and other study information was coded and entered into Comprehensive Meta-analysis III software, which was used to analyze results. Results Results showed that higher levels of prosocial behavior were significantly associated with lower levels of externalizing behaviors, as expected. Additionally, more reported prosocial behavior was related to less reported internalizing symptoms. Follow-up analyses revealed specific relationships between prosocial behavior and aggression, deviant peer association, risky sexual behavior, substance use, delinquency/general externalizing behavior, depression, and general internalizing behaviors (i.e., emotional problems, negative emotionality). A variety of moderators of these associations were considered, including age and sex. Conclusions Findings are discussed in the context of the broader research literature, weaknesses in the field are noted, and numerous meaningful directions for future research are presented.

Since 2006, the U.S. Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has allocated $1.2 billion to a Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) policy initiative that provides grants to community organizations to support relationship education (RE) services for lower income couples and individuals. The policy aim was to help disadvantaged couples and individuals form and sustain healthy, stable relationships and marriages. A significant body of research on the effectiveness of these programs has now accumulated. This meta-analytic study reviews all evaluation research reports of adult couple relationship education (CRE) programs supported by the ACF policy initiative to examine their impact on an array of couple, family, and individual well-being outcomes. Overall, our review of 32 control-group studies found a range of small but significant effects for couple relationship quality (d = .114), relationship skills (d = .132), mental health (d = .074), and coparenting (d = .033), but non-significant effects for relationship stability, parenting, and child well-being. Supplemental analyses with 19 1-group/pre-post studies showed larger effects. Planned moderator analyses explored significant heterogeneity in most effects, however, revealing interesting implications for practice and research going forward.Desde 2006, la Administración para los Niños y las Familias (Administration for Children and Families, ACF) de los Estados Unidos ha destinado $1.2 mil millones a una iniciativa de una política de Capacitación en Relaciones y Matrimonios Saludables (Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education, HMRE) que ofrece subvenciones a organizaciones comunitarias con el objetivo de financiar servicios de capacitación en relaciones para parejas y personas de bajos recursos. El objetivo de la política es ayudar a las parejas y a las personas desfavorecidas a formar y mantener relaciones y matrimonios estables y saludables. Actualmente se ha acumulado un número considerable de investigaciones sobre la eficacia de estos programas. En este estudio metaanalítico se analizan todos los informes de evaluaciones de investigaciones sobre programas de capacitación en relaciones de parejas adultas financiados por la iniciativa de políticas de la ACF con el fin de estudiar su efecto en diversos resultados de bienestar en las parejas, las familias y las personas particulares. En general, en nuestro análisis de 32 estudios de grupos de referencia se hallaron distintos efectos pequeños pero significativos para la calidad de la relación de pareja (d = .114), las habilidades relacionales (d = .132), la salud mental (d = .074), y la cocrianza (d = .033), y efectos no significativos para la estabilidad relacional, la crianza y el bienestar de los niños. Los análisis complementarios con 19 estudios previos y posteriores de un grupo demostraron efectos más importantes. Sin embargo, los análisis planificados de moderadores analizaron la heterogeneidad significativa en la mayoría de los efectos y revelaron consecuencias interesantes para la práctica y la investigación en el futuro.自2006年以来，美国儿童和家庭管理局(ACF)已向健康婚姻和关系教育(HMRE)政策倡议拨款达12亿美元，向社区组织提供赠款，支持为低收入伴侣和个人提供关系教育(RE)服务。该政策的目的是帮助处境不利的伴侣和个人建立和维持健康、稳定的关系和婚姻。关于这些项目的有效性，现在已经积累了大量的研究。这项元分析研究回顾了所有由ACF政策倡议支持的成人伴侣关系教育（CRE）项目的评估研究报告，以检查它们对一系列伴侣、家庭和个人福祉的影响。总的来说，我们对32个对照组研究的审查发现，对伴侣关系质量（d=0.114）、关系技能（d=0.132）、心理健康（d=0.074）和共同育儿（d=0.033）有一系列小而重要的影响，但对关系稳定性、养育子女和儿童幸福感没有明显的影响。对19个单组/前哨研究的补充分析显示了更大的影响。然而，计划调节因子分析探讨了大多数效果的重大异质性，揭示了对实践和研究的有趣影响。.

This article systematically reviewed 34 rigorous evaluation studies of couple relationship education (CRE) programs from 2010 to 2019 that met the criteria for Level 1 well-established interventions. Significant advances include reaching more diverse and disadvantaged target populations with positive intervention effects on a wider range of outcomes beyond relationship quality, including physical and mental health, coparenting, and even child well-being, and evidence that high-risk couples often benefit the most. In addition, considerable progress has been made delivering effective online CRE, increasing services to individuals rather than to couples, and giving greater attention to youth and young adults to teach them principles and skills that may help them form healthy relationships. Ongoing challenges include expanding our understanding of program moderators and change mechanisms, attending to emerging everyday issues facing couples (e.g., healthy breaking ups, long-distance relationships) and gaining increased institutional support for CRE.

Studies examining the effects of exposure to prosocial media on positive outcomes are increasing in number and strength. However, existing meta-analyses use a broad definition of prosocial media that does not recognize the multidimensionality of prosocial behavior. The aim of the current study is to conduct a meta-analysis on the effects of exposure to prosocial media on prosocial behavior, aggression, and empathic concern while examining multiple moderators that the prosocial behavior literature suggests are important to our understanding of why individuals voluntarily help others (e.g., target, type, cost). Results from 72 studies involving 243 effect sizes revealed that exposure to prosocial media was related to higher levels of prosocial behavior and empathic concern and lower levels of aggressive behavior. Moderation analyses suggest that several moderators accounted for heterogeneity in the model, including age of participant, region, media type (active vs. passive), and study design. In terms of multidimensional moderators, prosocial media had stronger effects on prosocial behavior toward strangers than did any other target and on helping and prosocial thinking but not donating or volunteering. Comparisons with other meta-analyses on media effects are made and implications for parents, media producers, and researchers are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The field of couple and relationship education is dominated by a focus on helping committed couples strengthen their relationship. This article reviews several lines of research to argue that the f...

Objective To explore whether changes in positive interaction skills as a result of participation in couple and relationship education (CRE) are associated with changes in relationship hope. Background Recent CRE work has focused more on its effectiveness for disadvantaged couples, with the early evidence mixed. Increasing the effectiveness of CRE for disadvantaged couples will require more evidence of how it works, not just whether it works. Method In this study, 182 lower income couples participated in a 30-hour psychoeducational intervention, Family Expectations (FE), in Oklahoma City. Participants completed measures of positive interaction skills and relationship hope, a seldom-studied construct in CRE research, before and shortly after the program. Results At pretest, there was significant variation in relationship hope among FE participants. Latent growth curve models revealed changes in positive interaction skills were associated with higher levels of partners' relationship hope at the end of the program, although the effect of men's skills changes on their partners' hope was 3 to 4 times stronger than for women's skills changes on their partners' hope. Additional latent growth curve models found that nearly 70% of participants reported positive changes in skills and that participants entering the program with the lowest levels of hope experienced the greatest changes in positive interaction skills. Conclusion We conclude that relationship hope is a legitimate target outcome in CRE and is influenced by improvement in positive interaction skills, consistent with social learning theory. Also, those entering CRE with low levels of hope improve interaction skills most, and men's growth produces larger gains for the couple relationship than women's growth. Implications Distressed individuals and couples should be particularly encouraged to attend CRE programs, and program developers should make sure that their curricula and pedagogic processes are well aligned with men's interests and learning styles.

This study reports on a nationally representative sample of married individuals ages 25-50 (N = 3,000) surveyed twice (1 year apart) to investigate the phenomenon of divorce ideation, or what people are thinking when they are thinking about divorce. Twenty-eight percent of respondents had thought their marriage was in serious trouble in the past but not recently. Another 25% had thoughts about divorce in the last 6 months. Latent Class Analysis revealed three distinct groups among those thinking about divorce at Time 1: soft thinkers (49%), long-term-serious thinkers (45%), and conflicted thinkers (6%). Yet, divorce ideation was not static; 31% of Time 1 thinkers were not thinking about it 1 year later (and 36% of nonthinkers at Time 1 were thinking about it 1 year later). Also, Latent Transition Analysis revealed 49% of Time 1 long-term-serious thinkers, 56% of soft thinkers, and 51% of conflicted thinkers had shifted groups at Time 2, mostly in the direction of less and softer thinking about divorce. Overall, divorce ideation is common but dynamic, and it is not necessarily an indication of imminent marital dissolution.

Divorce is commonplace in the United States, with an abundant scholarship on the phenomenon. Most research has focused on predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and family member well-being, and interventions and policies for divorcing couples and children. Although this scholarship tells us much about why couples get divorced and the impact divorce has, it has little to say about how individuals think about and couples talk about and make meaning of their decision-making process regarding divorce or reconciliation. The purpose of this article is to examine and critique existing theoretical frameworks used to understand decision-making processes both generally in the field and specifically in the context of divorce ideation. Our goal is to propose future research and theory directions that are better suited to capturing the complexity of decision-making processes within the liminal space of the lives of individuals who are married but facing the proximate possibility of divorce.

In this article, we review research on contemporary social trends that influence the next generation's ability to form and sustain a healthy marriage. As a result, we argue for greater attention to premarital interventions for engaged couples to help the next generation address the potential challenges created by these trends. After we briefly review the current state of premarital education and counseling, we examine four general, interrelated social trends: individualism and commitment ambivalence, changing attitudes about marriage, premarital relationship histories, and the omnipresent media environment. In addition, we offer four general proposals corresponding to these trends that we believe will enhance the future effectiveness of premarital interventions. We urge premarital educators and counselors to evaluate their current interventions with these proposals in mind.

The objective was to explore factors in the decision to reconcile after filing for divorce. Participants were asked to discuss how the resources available to them and the meanings they associated with experiencing marital difficulty influenced their decisions to stay married. A qualitative model was used. Seven couples (N = 14) who filed a petition for divorce in a Southern state between 2000 and 2010, but reconciled their marriages before the divorce proceedings were finalized, participated in a semistructured, open-ended interview. Using grounded theory techniques, the 5 major themes that emerged the decision-making process for the couples included (a) pulling together during difficult times, (b) growth from separation and reconciliation, (c) multiple attempts and rough starts, (d) it’s worth the hard work, and (e) big moves and grand gestures.

This chapter explores some reasons why Web-based education may be a rich resource to help fathers. It reviews several professional Web sites that specifically focus on father education and support. The private and unobtrusive nature of Web-based learning may provide added benefits for many men because they do not have to talk publicly about their reasons for seeking information, as is often expected in parent-education groups. Both National Center for Fathering and National Fatherhood Initiative provide a forum for fathers to discuss the many issues related to fathering. The tremendous number and variety of Web sites for fathers makes difficult the task of providing an overview of the resources available online. Many Web-based programs address specific fathering circumstances such as divorced fathers, new fathers, and fathers with special-needs children. FatherWork content was explicitly designed with moral content to encourage a deeper commitment to responsible, generative fathering.

An increase in public funding for marriage and relationship education is boosting the availability of these services for lower-income couples. This study examines whether a 5-year media campaign embedded in the Utah Healthy Marriages Initiative increased awareness of the Initiative and participation in premarital education. A baseline survey of young adults in Utah, ages 18 to 29, at the launch of the 5-year multimedia campaign was conducted in 2008 and then repeated with an independent cohort in 2013 to assess population change over time. Participants married less than 5 years in 2013 were two to three times more likely to be aware of StrongerMarriage.org and the services it promotes compared with their peers in 2008. In addition, the percentage of persons who participated in premarital education increased from 32% to 39%, but this apparent increase faded away when controls for age and education were included. However, further tests revealed a near significant year-by-education interaction and a trend fo...

This study examined the association between work–family conflict and couple relationship quality. We conducted a meta-analytic review of 49 samples from 33 papers published between 1986 and 2014. The results indicated that there was a significant negative relationship between work–family conflict and couple relationship quality (r = −.19, k = 49). Several moderators were included in this analysis: gender, region, parental status, dual-earner status, and the measures used for work–family conflict and marital quality variables. The strength of the relationship varied based on the region of the sample—samples from Europe and Asia had a significantly weaker relationship between work–family conflict and relationship quality than those from North America. In addition, the relationship was significantly weaker in samples of dual-earner couples and when non-standardized scales were used. Implications of the results and directions for future research are suggested.

Despite recent policy initiatives and substantial federal funding of individually oriented relationship education programs for youth, there have been no meta-analytic reviews of this growing field. This meta-analytic study draws on 17 control-group studies and 13 one-group/pre-post studies to evaluate the effectiveness of relationship education programs on adolescents’ and emerging adults’ relationship knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Overall, control-group studies produced a medium effect (d = .36); one-group/pre-post studies also produced a medium effect (d = .47). However, the lack of studies with long-term follow-ups of relationship behaviors in the young adult years is a serious weakness in the field, limiting what we can say about the value of these programs for helping youth achieve their aspirations for healthy romantic relationships and stable marriages.

I appreciate the opportunity to continue the important debate on the merits and wisdom of public policy efforts to support educational ser- vices designed to help lower income couples form healthy relationships and enduring mar- riages. Johnson (2014) has critiqued the recent article in Family Relations (Hawkins, Amato, & Kinghorn, 2013), which attempted to document at the demographic level whether public funding of Healthy Marriages and Relationships Initia- tives (HMRIs) was having any effect. Despite the brief time frame that this policy initiative has been active (since 2005), the limited funding for the initiatives (First, I want to clarify that the funding that has supported the federal HMRI has not been "carved out" (Johnson, 2014, p. 300) of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. That is, there is a general misunderstanding that the investment of federal dollars in HMRIs has detracted from other purposes of TANF. This is not the case. Funding for TANF has remained stable since passage of welfare reform in 1996 at $16.5 billion a year (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2012). Federal funding for HMRIs is a separate part of the Social Security Act, formalized in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Pragmatically, the original TANF legislation provided funding to reward states that were reducing their unwed childbearingrates.Butpolicymakersdiscovered that these rewards were going to states that benefited from natural demographic change rather than active policy successes. So these fundswereretaskedtosupportHMRIs.Acouple of states have set aside a small proportion (about 1%) of their TANF block grant funds to support preventative couple-education efforts, but these efforts subtract a miniscule amount from the overall TANF program. And such efforts clearly fall within the overarching legislative purposes of TANF. Of course, some might argue that regardless of where the funding comes from, it would be better used in the service of traditional antipoverty programs, given how great those needs are (and that inflation has reduced the value of the annual TANF allocation). However, if HMRI funds were added to the annual TANF appropriation, it would add (considerably) less than 1% to TANF-supported activities. Hence, HMRIs have not detracted financially from other antipoverty efforts. HMRIs are a new, experimental policy initiative, supplementing other antipoverty programs, exploring whether relationship education services can address directly a known cause of poverty-family instability.In addition, I want to clarify some points raised by Johnson about the research evaluating HMRI efforts. Space limitations to our recent article restricted how much detail we could offer readers about the emerging body of evaluation research on this topic and more research has come out since our article went to press. I appreciate that the editor of Family Relations has provided additional precious journal space toprovidemoredetailsoftheevaluationresearch to inform the debate over the merits of public support of HMRIs.Johnson highlighted three rigorous, large- scale, federally funded evaluation studies of HMRI services across the United States (Bir et al., 2012; Hsueh et al. 2012; Wood, Moore, Clarkwest, Killewald, & Monahan, 2012). One of these studies (Bir et al., 2012) was a quasi- experimental assessment of HMRIs in a handful of U.S. communities. But as the researchers themselves note, there were serious problems in the design and execution of the study that call into question the findings (which found no significant differences between treatment and comparison groups). …

The purpose of this research was to analyze participants' perceptions of the impact of premarital and relationship education workshops offered across the state of Texas. Regional marriage coalition leaders conducted online and telephone interview surveys of 1,109 participants between 6 and 24 months after participating in the workshops. Research questions included whether participants perceived the workshops as helping to improve their relationship skills and quality, whether these evaluations differed by demographics, and how participant relationship status changed after the workshop. A large majority of participants reported their relationship skills had improved as a result of the workshop. Workshop impact scores generally did not differ by gender, age, cohabitation status, and socioeconomic status. However, Hispanic participants reported somewhat higher workshop impact scores.

This study assesses whether government-supported Healthy Marriage Initiatives (HMIs)-educational programs to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships-have had a measurable impact on population-level family outcomes. We compiled data on funding for these initiatives between 2000 and 2010 and aggregated these data to the state level for each year. We employed pooled time-series regression with fixed state and year effects to estimate the effects of funding on population-level outcomes taken from the American Community Survey. Cumulative per capita funding for HMIs between 2005 and 2010 was positively associated with small changes in the percentage of married adults in the population and children living with two parents, and it was negatively associated with the percentage of children living with one parent, nonmarital births, and children living in poverty. These results were diminished, however, when an influential outlier-Washington, DC-was removed from the analysis. Interpretations and implications of these findings are discussed.Key Words: family life education, marriage and relationship education, poverty, public policy.(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)During the last decade, the federal government has supported educational programs designed to help individuals and couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. These efforts are known collectively as Healthy Marriage Initiatives (HMIs). Several motivations underlie attempts to improve the quality and stability of romantic unions. Research has shown that children, on average, perform best on measures of adjustment and achievement when reared in stable, well-functioning, two-parent families with involved fathers (Brown, 2010). Moreover, couple instability increases the risk of economic hardship for children and adults (Thomas & Sawhill, 2002). Although difficult to measure, the public costs of marital dissolution and union instability appear to be substantial (Scandi, 2008; Schramm, 2006). And the proportion of children experiencing family instability in the United States continues to increase (Kreider & Ellis, 2011). For these reasons, policymakers and researchers have asked whether policy initiatives can improve the quality and stability of parental unions and, in doing so, improve children's well-being, lower family poverty, and decrease costs to the state.Another influential stream of research emerged from the longitudinal Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (McLanahan et al., 2003). Using these data, researchers found that the majority of out-of-wedlock births occur to parents in romantic relationships who hope to marry and provide stable families for their children. But despite these positive aspirations, these unions are fragile; few survive beyond 5 years (McLanahan & Beck, 2010). Still, qualitative research has documented that some of these fragile families go to unusual lengths to try to preserve the family and father -child bonds even when the couple relationship is unfulfilling (Cross-Barnet, Cherlin, & Burton, 2012). Findings like these have led policymakers to consider whether educational interventions could strengthen these relationships, allow couples to fulfill their family aspirations, and increase the degree of stability in children's lives.As we describe later, since the late 1990s, HMIs have been implemented in virtually all 50 states. Although HMIs are targeted to couples and individuals, advocates for these programs have stressed the eventual goal of society-wide change. For example, the explicit goals of the original 1996 welfare reform legislation included reducing the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, 1996). The primary goal of the federal HMI is to "increase the percentage of children who are raised by two parents in a healthy marriage" (Administration for Children and Families, n. …

Traditional marriage evaluations typically focus on marital satisfaction and communication. However, other indicators of marital quality can be used to assess interactions within relationships. The current paper presents an evaluation of the Marital Virtues Profile (MVP), a brief and easy to understand assessment designed to measure virtues in marital relationships. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the hypothesized structure of the MVP and confirmatory factor analysis was used to explore its specific measurement properties. Results indicate that the 15 item MVP is an efficient and reliable measure of both specific marital virtues and an overall marital virtue. Limitations of the current study and applications of the MVP to marital education programs and therapeutic settings are discussed.

Although many adults and children are resilient after divorce, it is common for marital breakups to precipitate the need for government assistance for families who had been self-sufficient. This study focuses on the economic costs of divorce associated with means-tested welfare programs in Texas, which fall into five central areas: medical assistance; cash assistance; food assistance; housing, energy, and utility assistance; and child care and development assistance. The study estimated that Texas spends at least $3.18 billion on divorce and its related consequences each year, accounting for approximately 12% of the total Texas budget in 2008. These results reinforce the notion that family actions often have public consequences. Policy implications related to services aimed at strengthening healthy marriage and decreasing “preventable” divorce via reconciliation services are offered.

This meta-analysis examines the efficacy of self-directed marriage and relationship education (MRE) programs on relationship quality and communication skills. Programs combining traditional face-to-face learning with self-directed elements are also examined, and traditional programs' effectiveness is included as a comparison point. Sixteen studies focused on self-directed interventions; 13 studies focused on programs combining self-directed and traditional components. For self-directed programs, the effect size for relationship quality was small and not significant (d = .032, ns); a small, significant effect size was found for communication skills (d = .160, p Key Words: marriage and relationship education, metaanalysis program evaluation, self-directed.Recent meta-analyses examining marriage and relationship education (MRE) have generally demonstrated that such programs are effective in improving couples' communication skills and relationship satisfaction (Blanchard, Hawkins, Baldwin, & Fawcett, 2009; Fawcett, Hawkins, Blanchard, & Carroll, 2010; Hawkins, Blanchard, Baldwin, & Fawcett, 2008; Hawkins & Fackrell, 2010). Participation in these programs appears to have increased over time. Stanley, Amato, Johnson, and Markman (2006) found that although only 7% of those married during the 1930s and 1940s had participated in premarital education, 44% of couples married since 1990 had participated. More distressed couples and couples at higher risk of divorce are underrepresented in MRE attendance (Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, Markman, & Johnson, 2009; Halford, O'Donnell, Lizzio, & Wilson, 2006), which is unfortunate, as these are perhaps the couples who could benefit the most from participation. And participation in premarital education is likely higher than in marital enrichment programs.Perhaps some of this lack of participation is due to an overemphasis on the traditional classroom format for MRE. Although this is an important format that appears to be effective, it might not be practical for everyone in today's busy, fast-paced, online world. Research by Blair and Cordova (2009) found that women are less likely to participate in MRE if they perceive barriers to attendance, such as a high monetary cost or time commitment. In an earlier study, Roberts and Morris (1998) found both men and women nonparticipants more likely than participants to agree that a lack of time and interest interfered with their involvement. Other more recent research has examined numerous factors predicting involvement in MRE (Duncan, Holman, & Yang, 2007; Morris, McMillan, Duncan, & Larson, 201 1), but these factors did not include format as an attracter or an inhibitor to involvement. It may be that alternative MRE programs that branch out from traditional classroom learning can mitigate inhibitions to involvement resulting from perceived costs to involvement, providing increased MRE options and opportunities to reach a different audience than traditional MRE efforts.The advent of the Internet has caused a revolution in the way information is shared. Increasingly, there is an expectation that information must be available immediately and at any time. Self-directed forms of MRE programs (such as self-help books and DVDs) have existed for some time, but in response to this educational shift, we are seeing an increase in the number of self-directed MRE programs available on the Internet. This article seeks to synthesize the literature on self-directed MRE using meta-analysis to determine the overall effectiveness of these programs. Understanding the effectiveness of these interventions can guide educators in their efforts to create and refine self-directed MRE.Self-directed MRESelf-directed MRE programs are an alternative to classroom learning. …

The current study examined how parental mediation of media (restrictive mediation, active mediation, and coviewing) influenced child outcomes. Three meta-analyses, 1 for each type of mediation, were conducted on a total of 57 studies. Each analysis assessed the effectiveness of parental mediation on 4 pertinent child outcomes: media use, aggression, substance use, and sexual behavior. The overall results indicated small, but significant relationships between child outcomes and restrictive mediation (r+ = -.06), and coviewing (r+ =.09). Overall active mediation was nonsignificant, though active mediation was individually related to lower levels of aggression (r+ = -.08), sexual behavior (r+ = -.06), and substance use (r+ = -.11). This analysis revealed that parents may have the ability to mitigate some of the adverse effects of the media by using certain mediation strategies. Overall, a cooperative effort from the communication and parenting fields is necessary for a comprehensive analysis of parental mediation as well as a disentanglement of the various parental mediation measures. (PsycINFO Database Record Language: en

This review summarizes and synthesizes what researchers and practitioners have learned about the potential of public policy support for marriage and relationship education (MRE) to help lower income individuals and couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. In short, this review documents modest, early evidence that low-income couples participate in well-designed MRE programs when they are offered, enjoy the educational experience, and report that the program is helpful. Practitioners have been going through a fast and steep learning process to figure out how best to recruit and maintain participation and adapt curricula to meet unique needs and situations. The evidence from the early outcome studies provides some support for the notion that MRE programs can have positive, modest effects on low-income couples' relationships, at least in the short run. However, much more research is needed to answer this question more definitively. Fortunately, more high-quality evaluation research will ...

This study explores the factors that divorcing couples say contributed to the breakdown of their marriage and how those factors are related to thoughts and interest in reconciliation. A sample of 886 individual divorcing parents in Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 2008 responded to a brief survey after mandated parenting classes. The two most common reasons given for seeking a divorce were “growing apart” (55%) and “not able to talk together” (53%). Growing apart, differences in tastes, and money problems were negatively associated with interest in reconciliation; abuse and adultery were not associated with interest in reconciliation.

In this meta-analytic study, we looked at all empirical studies that examined the effectiveness of court-affiliated divorcing parents education programs (DPEs). Overall, we found that DPEs were generally effective. Nineteen studies with a DPE treatment group and no-treatment control group had an overall significant moderate positive effect (d= .39); those who participated in DPEs were about 50% better off in terms of program outcomes compared to those who did not participate. The studies examined five specific outcomes: co-parenting conflict, parent-child relationships, child well-being, parent well-being, and relitigation; with most of these specific outcomes we found significant moderate effects ranging from d= .19–.61. However, there were important methodological limitations in this body of research, which are discussed. While more research is needed to confirm the positive potential of DPEs, we probably know enough to justify continuing and even increasing support for this recent social policy innovation.

Previous studies (J. S. Carroll & W. J. Doherty, 2003) have asserted that premarital education programs have a positive effect on program participants. Using meta-analytic methods of current best practices to look across the entire body of published and unpublished evaluation research on premarital education, we found a more complex pattern of results. We coded 47 studies and found that premarital education programs do not improve relationship quality/satisfaction when unpublished studies are included in the analysis, although studies that follow couples past the honeymoon stage to detect prevention effects are rare. In contrast, premarital education programs appear to be effective at improving couple communication, with studies that employed observational measures rather than self-report measures producing large effects. Still, given the mixed, modest results, there is ample room and a real need to improve the practice of premarital education.

Using meta-analysis, we reviewed the effectiveness of resident fathering education programs. Our review identified 16 studies with over 200 reported effect sizes. Results revealed a significant overall effect size of d = .26, with specific significant outcomes ranging from d = .14 to d = .61. Studies with father-only reports produced significantly larger effects than multiple-reporter studies; studies with no-treatment control groups produced larger effects than studies with minimal-treatment comparison groups. A lack of long-term follow-up evaluation limited our ability to examine the strength of these effects over time. Although there is some reason for optimism, more fathering education program research is needed. Indeed, the dearth of work in this area may be the most important finding of this meta-analysis.

While a large number of studies have documented how couple education programs can strengthen couple relationships, few studies have tested these programs on lower-income, higher-risk couples. Yet over the past decade, state and federal governments have been experimenting with supporting couple education programs designed to help lower-income couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. This article reports the findings of a meta-analytic study of the effectiveness of couple education targeted to lower-income couples. We examined evaluation data from 15 programs and found small-to-moderate effects. For the three control-group studies, we found the overall effect of these programs was d = .250 (p < .05). For the 12 one-group/pre-post studies, we found the overall effect was d = .293 (p < .001). These effects are relatively similar to those found for MRE studies with middle-income participants and for studies of other family-support educational programs. Implications for couple educators are...

In this manuscript, we provide a sampling of law and policy reforms over the past decade intended to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and set out the rationale employed to justify these initiatives. Then we turn to the challenging task of evaluating whether these initiatives are likely to bear fruit, acknowledging three primary critiques. In the end, we see governmental efforts to strengthen the institution of marriage as legitimate, although we raise several nontrivial concerns with implications for future directions. To predict that these initiatives will have a significant impact on the institution of marriage requires a strong belief in the power of educational intervention and a substantial expansion of public support that spurs efforts in the private sector.

In this article, we report the results of an evaluation study of a program for couples during the transition to parenthood on father involvement in child care. One-hundred-twenty couples were assigned to 1 of the 3 groups: a treatment group that received the Welcome Baby new-parent, home-visiting program focused on infant develop- ment and health, supplemented with the self-guided Marriage Moments program focused on strengthening couple relationships; a comparison group that received just the Welcome Baby program; or a control group. The study revealed that the treatment group fathers were more involved in child care than control group fathers, and this find- ing was replicated in a second evaluation study. Family life educators must be open to the possibility that they may miss a primary intervention target, yet hit a secondary one. In this article, we report the results of a study evalu- ating the effects of an intervention delivered during the transition to parenthood on father involvement. The intervention was designed primarily to streng- then couple relationship outcomes but failed to produce such effects. On the other hand, we did find a treatment effect on a secondary target outcome of father involvement in child care. That is, we missed our primary target but hit a secondary target. Before describing the study and our findings, we briefly review the literatures on father involvement and child well-being, coparenting, and evaluation research of interventions designed to increase father involvement, as well as couple-focused transition-to- parenthood programs.