“I Don't Want to Make the Same Mistakes”: Relationship Education Among Low‐Income Single Adults

• Date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Brian J. Higginbotham,Daniel Laxman,Bryan Spuhler,Courtney Nielsen Morgan,Kay Bradford
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12379
• Published date: 01 October 2019

K B, B S, B J. H, D L,

 C N M Utah State University

“I Don’t Want to Make the Same Mistakes”:

Relationship Education Among Low-Income

Single Adults

Objective: To examine, through the lens of sym-

bolic interactionism, the experiences and ini-

tial outcomes of low-income single adults who

received relationship education.

Background: As relationship education reaches

more low-income participants, research is

needed to examine how it reaches such audi-

ences and how it works. Weused mixed-methods

to examine processes and learning outcomes

among these participants.

Method: Focus-group interview data (n=10)

and short-response qualitative data (n=188)

were analyzed phenomenologically. Quantita-

tive data (n=165) were collected to examine

changes in participants’ perceived knowl-

edge about healthy relationships using a

random-intercept, multilevel regression model.

Results: The two qualitative analyses yielded

four themes, three of which overlapped: par-

ticipant motivation based on past relationship

mistakes, reported and anticipated change,

and self-assessment. The quantitative analy-

ses showed a statistically signicant increase

in perceived knowledge about relationship

skills and healthy partner selection. Partic-

ipants also placed greater importance on a

Department of Human Development & FamilyStudies, Utah

State University, 2705 Old Main, Logan, UT 84322-2705

(k.bradford@usu.edu).

Key Words: family life education, low income, preven-

tion/intervention programs, symbolic interactionism.

potential partner’s past relationship patterns,

relationship behaviors, and attitudes.

Conclusion: Past relationship experiences

motivated participants’ learning and moved

them toward change. Participants increased

their relationship knowledge in terms of selec-

tion and pacing.

Implications: Relationship education can be

offered as an impactful adjunct service to

low-income participants.

Couple relationship education among

middle-class participants is generally effec-

tive (Hawkins, Blanchard, Baldwin, & Fawcett,

2008), but it is unclear how well relation-

ship education meets the needs of participants

with lower incomes (Ooms & Wilson, 2004).

Low-income couples certainly benet from

relationship education (Carlson, Barden, Daire,

& Greene, 2014; Hawkins & Ooms, 2010),

but studies also suggest that nancial strain

and contextual stressors make the low-income

relationship context different (Williamson,

Altman, Hsueh, & Bradbury, 2016). Indeed,

a low-income context is in itself a risk factor

for relationship instability (Sassler, 2010) and

dissolution (Cherlin, 2009). Thus, research is

needed to establish best practices for work-

ing with this relatively high-risk population

(Johnson, 2012).

Toaddress this gap, we used a mixed-methods

design to examine the experiences and initial

Family Relations 68 (October 2019): 405–419 405

DOI:10.1111/fare.12379