Culture, couple relationship standards, and couple relationship education and therapy

Committed couple relationships of marriage and marriage-like partnerships exist across all known cultures and likely reflect shared evolutionary imperatives to form couple partnerships to enhance the chance of raising viable offspring ( Buss, 2016 ). At the same time, there is considerable variation between cultures in the form and functions of couple relationships. The first half of the current chapter reviews the form and function of couple relationships cross-culturally, with a particular focus on how standards about what should be in good relationships are similar and different across diverse cultures. The second half of the chapter describes interventions to enhance couple functioning, couple relationship education and therapy, and how these interventions appropriately can address issues of culture.