Premarital Education Could Cut Divorce Rate, Survey Finds - 6/22/06

[Smartmarriages]

This USA TODAY article ran the first day of the Smart Marriages Conference
and was picked up in papers all across the country. It doesn't say, but we
know that the name of the "premarital and marital education program"
co-founded by Scott Stanley is the PREP program.  Scott was part of a team
training PREP and Christian PREP instructors in three-day pre-conference
Institutes.  And, it doesn't say, but the new "teach right out of the box"
or "use right out of the box" (it's suitable for training workshops or for
couples to view in their living room) DVD-based wedding intervention program
created by Bill Doherty is called The First Dance.  It launched to great
success at this year's Atlanta Smart Marriages Conference and was also
featured last week on The Today Show.  Quite a launch!  You can purchase the
2-hour First Dance Mini training workshop presented by Bill and his
daughter, Elizabeth, on DVD or CD at 800-241-7785 or at
http://www.playbacknow.com/search/index.cfm?CFID=10000905&CFTOKEN=44495170&P
agemode=Individual&EventID=263295

> Order Session #756-601
> The First Dance/Take Back Your Wedding - MINI
> Bill Doherty, PhD, Elizabeth Doherty Thomas
> Teach a program to help engaged couples, in the face of complex & sometimes
> conflicted couple & family dynamics, plan a strong, ³family-systems² based
> wedding that will lay a solid foundation for life-long marriage. Order The
> First Dance on their website at http://www.thefirstdance.com


###############################

- PREMARITAL EDUCATION COULD CUT DIVORCE RATE, SURVEY FINDS
By Sharon Jayson
USA TODAY
June 22, 2006 

More couples are getting premarital education, perhaps thinking it may give
their new marriages divorce protection. And new research suggests they may
well be right.

Premarital education "is associated with higher levels of marital
satisfaction, lower levels of destructive conflicts and higher levels of
interpersonal commitment to spouses," says the study, published this spring
in the Journal of Family Psychology. Based on a random phone survey of 3,344
adults in four states, it says couples who received premarital education had
a 31% lower chance of divorce. The number of hours spent in premarital
programs ranged from as little as a few hours to 20 hours. The median was
eight hours.

Most religious denominations suggest that their engaged couples participate
in such programs; Catholicism requires it. But now, others also are giving
them a try.

"The reason this has become more important, at least culturally if not
religiously, is that people are beginning to try and figure out ways to
prevent divorce," says Deborah Caldwell, managing editor of Beliefnet.com, a
multi-faith religion website.

Unlike premarital counseling, which involves the couple alone and may focus
on their conflicts and trouble spots, premarital education takes place in a
group; classes provide general relationship advice.

Because premarital education aims to lower the risk of divorce and identify
problem areas before the wedding, experts suggest couples start such
programs six months to a year out.

Scott Stanley, co-founder of a premarital and marital education program and
a co-author of the journal study, says increased interest in premarital
education follows a cultural trend "to be much more accepting of education
as a way to improve one's ability to do life well." He is speaking this week
at the Smart Marriages Conference in Atlanta.

His study surveyed adults in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in 2001.
Only 7% of those married there during the 1930s and 1940s got premarital
education, compared with 44% of those married since 1990.

Apparent benefits were the same across race, income and education, but there
was at least one difference.

"It looks like everyone has the same benefit, but they don't have the same
access," Stanley says.

William Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of
Minnesota, is among those who want to improve that access. He has created a
DVD designed to give prospective brides and grooms a dose of premarital
education amid the logistics of their wedding planning. The two-hour
mini-course is aimed at managing what Doherty calls the "people stress" of
preparing for the big event.

Wedding planning advice abounds, from a plethora of books to websites and
chat rooms that let brides-to-be vent about their soon-to-be in-laws or
their own family issues. But Doherty says their advice is simplistic.

Marcy Twete, 22, of Minneapolis, and fiancé Matthew Harrington, 23, of New
Richmond, Wis., were among a small group invited to attend a preview of
Doherty's DVD session earlier this year.

Their July 29 wedding has prompted her to look at lots of books and wedding
websites, but they don't tell brides much about the background issues
related to family dynamics.

"It's all focused on flowers and pictures and everything else. Nobody takes
into consideration what's going to happen to the family after the wedding is
over," Twete says. "It really is about joining two families."
------
-SIDEBAR: HEADING TO CLASS
Percentage who received premarital education:

1930s-40s: 7%

1950s: 12%

1960s: 22%

1970s: 25%

1980s: 32%

1990s-2001: 44%

Source: 2001 study of adults in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas,
Journal of Family Psychology

**************************
- PREP AND FIRST DANCE

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10th Annual Smart Marriages Conference, Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel,
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Download the brochure and registration form at
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