What is Marriage Education?
Marriage education is a process of teaching important knowledge, skills, and attitudes about relationships and marriage. Marriage education is not counseling or therapy, but instead it focuses on building understanding and competence. In other words, its purpose is to build capacity and strengths and equip people to be successful in their roles as relationship partners and then as marriage partners. It begins with preparation for relationships and marriage for individuals and couples of all ages and experience levels. Marriage education provides marriage-strengthening tools for happily married couples. It can also provide skill building and assistance for deeply troubled couples considering separation or divorce, although this education is usually best paired with help from a trained counselor. Marriage education’s focus is on taking timely actions to prevent future problems. Click here to view our What is Marriage Education? document for general audiences and click here for a Bahá’í-s
Diane Sollee: It is three streams of information. The first stream is the benefits to men, women, children and society. For too many years, the well-meaning experts, including myself, were saying all family forms are equal. We operated on the mentor model that if the child has at least one adult in his life with a strong connection, that is all he needs. Then a compelling body of research started coming that there is nothing you can measure for men, women and children where they do not do better in an intact biological family. That is a hard thing to say because that means they do not do as well in stepfamilies or any other family form. Just getting that information to couples is very valuable instead of saying, “The kids will be fine. All family forms are equal. We will send you to divorce adjustment therapy and then everything will be okay.” It turns out that is not what the research is showing, and we have to correct that message. The second stream of information is what to expect i
Marriage education is a course, or a series of courses, intended to help couples learn more about themselves, each other, and relationships before deciding to get married. In some cases, marriage education also includes continuing education for the already married couple as well as those struggling in or hoping to improve their relationships.
Marriage Education is an approach that teaches couples the skills and information they need to communicate, manage conflict, and have a healthy, satisfying relationship. You can teach this material to couples (and singles) in classes, retreats, workshops and at-a-distance learning – online, phone-coaching, DVD-based programs. There are a wide variety of formats – some lecture or DVD-based, others highly interactive and excersise-base, others are a blend. While the size of the class and teaching styles vary, all the courses offer the basics – the information, skills and understanding that enable couples to strengthen their relationship. Marriage Education is based on research about what makes marriages succeed or fail. It includes information 1) on the benefits of marriage; 2) on what to expect along the way – provides a roadmap for the normal, expected stages and challenges; and most important, 3) teaches the skills and behaviors that will help build a strong bond and help couples keep
