Home > News
New research indicates that premarital education programs aimed at improving relationships may give newlyweds divorce protection.
The study, based on a random telephone survey of 3,344 adults in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, found that engaged couples who received pre-wedding education were 31 percent less likely to obtain a divorce.
According to the new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology, pre-wedding education “is associated with higher levels of marital satisfaction, lower levels of destructive conflicts, and higher levels of interpersonal commitment to spouses.”
Premarital education differs from premarital counseling in which a couple deals with their own conflicts and issues in the relationship with a counselor. In premarital education programs, couples meet in groups and are given general relationship advice and are educated to deal with problems that may arise.
Premarital education is directly aimed at lowering the risk of divorce by identifying relationship problems prior to the marriage, and aides in fixing these problems. Experts advise engaged couple to begin these programs at least six months to year before their wedding.
While many religious denominations insist that engaged couples receive pre-martial education, more and more couples are opting to participate on their own.
According to Deborah Caldwell, the managing editor of Beliefnet.com, a multifaith religion website, premarital education courses have become exceedingly popular among a lot of couples. “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.”
William Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota notes that the problem with premarital education programs is the little access most couples have. To improve the access, Doherty has designed a premarital education DVD to give future brides and grooms a dose of reality amid the chaos of wedding plans. His two-hour intense course is aimed at helping manage the pre-wedding stress that plagues couples as they prepare for the big day.
Marcy Twete and her fiancé Matthew Harrington were invited to attend a preview of Doherty’s DVD course to prepare them for their July wedding. While the couple has pored through lots of wedding books and websites, they say that these don’t give much information about the real issues of marriage.
“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.”