Social influences predicting involvement in couple relationship education

Published date01 December 2023
AuthorChristine M. W. Totura Garrison,Daniel Neely,Julianne McGill,Francesca Adler‐Baeder
Date01 December 2023
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12810
RESEARCH
Social influences predicting involvement in couple
relationship education
Christine M. W. Totura Garrison
1
|Daniel Neely
2
|
Julianne McGill
3
|Francesca Adler-Baeder
3
1
Department of Psychology, Auburn
University at Montgomery, Montgomery, AL
2
Department of Psychology, Auburn
University, Auburn, AL
3
Human Development and Family Studies,
Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Correspondence Christine M. W. Totura
Garrison, Department of Psychology,
210 Goodwyn Hall, Auburn University at
Montgomery, AL 36117.
Email: ctotura@aum.edu
Funding information
This work was supported by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (#HHS-2015-ACF-OFA-FM-0985).
Abstract
Objective: This study explored the implementation climate
of couple relationship education (CRE), specifically the
positive role intimate partners, group members, and pro-
gram facilitators have on ones beneficial involvement in
programming.
Background: For CRE programs to be effective, participants
need to be actively involved, yet little is known about social
influences in the program encouraging participation in CRE.
The perceived involvement of influential others was expected
to moderate the relationship between intentions to participate
and actual CRE involvement, with this involvement related
to improvements in marital quality.
Method: Participants (584 men; M
age
=38.9 years and
627 women; M
age
=36.4 years) completed online surveys
assessing study variables pre- and post-CRE programming.
Results: Perceived intimate partner involvement contributed
to better individual involvement and relationship quality for
women with low intentions to participate in CRE, whereas
both perceived partner and group involvement tended to
have a protective effect for mens involvement.
Conclusion: This study primarily demonstrates the impor-
tance of the perception of ones intimate partners involve-
ment in predicting individual involvement in CRE programs.
Implications: Determining predictors of program involve-
ment assists with understanding the context of CRE effec-
tiveness and skill acquisition for those intended to benefit.
KEYWORDS
couple relationship education, marital quality, program implementation,
program involvement, social norms, theory of planned behavior
Author note: Special thanks to Kinsey Williams and Courtney Hess for their invaluable assistance.
Received: 1 December 2020Revised: 8 August 2022Accepted: 22 October 2022
DOI: 10.1111/fare.12810
© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.
2610 Family Relations. 2023;72:26102626.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare
Couple relationship education (CRE) is a preventative effort designed to equip participants
with skills and ideas to support relationship health and stability (Wadsworth &
Markman, 2012). To obtain the requisite skills to improve relationship outcomes, participants
must be readily engaged with program content. For such programs to be effective, not only do
they need to be grounded in research and theory about what relates to relationship quality, par-
ticipants must intend to participate and then become actively involved in the core components
(Ajzen, 2011; Fixsen et al., 2005). This is especially true for CRE in which content addresses
personal and intimate behaviors of the couple that requires openness on the part of each partner
to practice and hone various relationship skills together (Halford, 2011). The degree to which
individuals involve themselves in programming has been commonly evaluated in education and
clinical research, yet less is known about this construct in the family studies and prevention
fields (Durlak & DuPre, 2008; Dusenbury et al., 2005; Fredricks et al., 2004; Low et al., 2014;
Ringwalt et al., 2009; Wilson & Halford, 2008). There are also few studies that examine how
social context can influence participant program involvement. CRE, in particular, is a program
type that includes the unique influential context of couples working individually and together in
a group of other couples, alongside a facilitator who leads the couples in tandem through pro-
gram content and activities. Examining the relationship these influences have on CRE partici-
pant involvement can provide important insight into how participants gain buy-in to
programming and the effectiveness of CRE implementation.
The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is an informative framework in understanding behav-
ior change, such as making the decision to become involved in CRE programming. TPB posits
that intentions to perform a certain behavior are direct predictors of involvement in such behav-
iors (Ajzen, 2011). However, TPB proposes that intentions are not sufficient; other factors can
either enhance or diminish the connection between them and behaviors. The theory states that
ones attitudes toward engaging in a particular target behavior plays an important role in
predicting ones involvement in those behaviors. Yet in some program contexts, what is believed
about how others feel about engaging in the target behaviors can be equally if not more predic-
tive (Ajzen, 2001). Within TPB, subjective norms, or the attitudes and behaviors of influential
individuals associated with a program, can have a moderating effect on the link between an
individuals intentions and involvement behaviors (Ajzen, 2011). TPB contends that in conjunc-
tion with positive attitudes, the perception of supportive social norms of others around engag-
ing in the behavior increase the likelihood of carrying out a given behavior (Norman, 2011;
Topa & Moriano, 2010). Previous research in other prevention contexts has supported this
notion in that perceived positive peer norms toward engaging in program activities of those par-
ticipating in group-based suicide prevention were strong influences on individual engagement in
learned suicide prevention behaviors (Totura et al., 2019a). Suicide prevention is one context in
which the beliefs and norms of others are critical as this tends to be a more sensitive and stigma-
tizing topic. The same may hold true for CRE programs as well because they focus on intimate
relationship issues and drivers, a context in which individual participants may feel uncomfort-
able and look to others to gauge response to the program content.
CRE has demonstrated effectiveness with communication and conflict management skills
(Fincham et al., 2007), relationship quality and satisfaction (Hawkins et al., 2008), parenting
and coparenting quality (Adler-Baeder et al., 2013), and improvements in child social compe-
tence (Adler-Baeder et al., 2016). Improved relationship quality, then, significantly predicts
indicators of personal well-being, including happiness and life satisfaction, depression, anxiety,
and self-esteem (Proulx et al., 2007). Participants enter CRE programming with a degree of
intentionality to participate and potentially to meet these relationship-related goals, yet this
does not necessarily mean that they will eventually engage in program activities, particularly
those that touch on personally sensitive topics. This phenomenon has been demonstrated in
other fields touching on emotionally laden topics, such as suicide prevention (Totura
et al., 2019a,2019b). TPB suggests in these instances that ones perceptions of how others
INFLUENCES IN COUPLE RELATIONSHIP EDUCATION2611

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