How Does Couple and Relationship Education Affect Relationship Hope? An Intervention‐Process Study with Lower Income Couples

• Author: Chongming Yang,Sage E. Allen,Alan J. Hawkins
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12268
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

A J. H Brigham Young University

S E. A Utah State University

C Y Brigham Young University

How Does Couple and Relationship Education

Affect Relationship Hope? An Intervention-Process

Study with Lower Income Couples

Objective: To explore whether changes in posi-

tive interaction skills as a result of participation

in couple and relationship education (CRE) are

associated with changes in relationship hope.

Background: Recent CRE work has focused

more on its effectiveness for disadvantaged cou-

ples, with the early evidence mixed. Increasing

the effectiveness of CRE for disadvantaged cou-

ples will require more evidence of how it works,

not just whether it works.

Method: In this study, 182 lower income cou-

ples participated in a 30-hour psychoeduca-

tional intervention, Family Expectations (FE),

in Oklahoma City. Participants completed mea-

sures of positive interaction skills and relation-

ship hope, a seldom-studied construct in CRE

research, before and shortly aftert he program.

Results: At pretest, there was signicant varia-

tion in relationship hope among FE participants.

Latent growth curve models revealed changes

in positive interaction skills were associated

with higher levels of partners’ relationship

hope at the end of the program, although

the effect of men’s skills changes on their

School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, 2092-D

JFSB, Provo, UT 84602 (hawkinsa@byu.edu).

Key Words: Couple and relationship education, interven-

tion-process study,relationship hope.

partners’ hope was 3 to 4 times stronger than

for women’s skills changes on their partners’

hope. Additional latent growth curve models

found that nearly 70% of participants reported

positive changes in skills and that participants

entering the program with the lowest levels

of hope experienced the greatest changes in

positive interaction skills.

Conclusion: We conclude that relationship

hope is a legitimate target outcome in CRE

and is inuenced by improvement in positive

interaction skills, consistent with social learn-

ing theory. Also, those entering CRE with low

levels of hope improve interaction skills most,

and men’s growth produces larger gains for the

couple relationship than women’s growth.

Implications: Distressed individuals and cou-

ples should be particularly encouraged to attend

CRE programs, and program developers should

make sure that their curricula and pedagogic

processes are well aligned with men’s interests

and learning styles.

Forty years of ongoing research has established

that couple and relationship education (CRE)

programs can be effectiveat strengthening roma-

ntic relationships for advantaged couples (Blan-

chard, Hawkins, Baldwin, & Fawcett, 2009;

Fawcett, Hawkins, Blanchard, & Carroll, 2010;

Family Relations 66 (July 2017): 441–452 441

DOI:10.1111/fare.12268