Healthy Marriage Education Available to a Diverse Audience

Professors Brian Higginbotham, Scot Allgood and Linda Skogrand, from the Department of Family, Consumer, and Human Development at Utah State University recently received a grant funding a program to teach healthy relationship skills to children and couples in stepfamilies.

The team received $2.3 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a project titled Teaching Healthy Marriage Skills to Ethnically Diverse, Low-Income Couples in Stepfamilies.

 

In its 2005 Healthy Marriage Initiative, the Administration for Children and Families identified several under-researched population groups it would like included in the initiative’s activities and evaluations, including low-income couples, ethnic- and racial-minority groups and stepfamilies.

 

Research base strategies for teaching marriage skills to low-income couples and for making remarriage education more effective include offering programs in a setting where individuals feel most comfortable, working through agencies that serve the target population and addressing barriers to attendance, such as financial costs for low-income couples.

 

Most marriage education and relationship programs have been developed for and offered to middle-class Americans who are married, or will be getting married, for the first time, said Higginbotham. Even programs designed for diverse target audiences are largely based on research from non-divorced, white, middle-class Americans, thus raising the question of suitability for couples with diverse characteristics who face unique challenges in marriage.

 

By addressing the barriers that have historically hindered couples from participating in marriage education, the USU project provides low-income couples in stepfamilies with the opportunity to become more educated on healthy marriage and relationship skills.

 

The project will also include a longitudinal study of participants and a formative evaluation of effective strategies to reach and teach these couples.

 

The program will be offered at 10 sites in northern Utah in partnership with several family service organizations in the region. The curriculum will focus on relationship building, conflict management, commitment and other essential relationship skills. The program consists of six, two-hour classes. Adults and children meet separately for the first hour-and-a-half of each session and then combine for the last half-hour for family-oriented activities.

 

For more information, contact Higginbotham at 797-7276 or brianh@ext.usu.edu.

 

Contact: Brian Higginbotham 797-7276