ERIC Number: EJ889763
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Jul
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0197-6664
EISSN: N/A
Do Premarital Education Programs Really Work? A Meta-Analytic Study
Fawcett, Elizabeth B.; Hawkins, Alan J.; Blanchard, Victoria L.; Carroll, Jason S.
Family Relations, v59 n3 p232-239 Jul 2010
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 Using meta-analytic methods of current best practices to look across the entire body of published and unpublished evaluation research on premarital education, we found a more complex pattern of results. We coded 47 studies and found that premarital education programs do not improve relationship quality/satisfaction when unpublished studies are included in the analysis, although studies that follow couples past the honeymoon stage to detect prevention effects are rare.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.
Descriptors: Marriage, Meta Analysis, Marriage Counseling, Program Effectiveness, Counseling Techniques, Marital Satisfaction, Prevention, Interpersonal Communication
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A