It's a fact!

Studies show that couples who prepare for marriage have a much greater chance of having a happy marriage that lasts a lifetime.

The quotes shown below are taken from recent in depth studies into the effectiveness of courses that provide relationships skills for couples before they get married.

These courses include marriage preparation courses much like the ones shown on this website.

"Preventative relationship and parenting education programmes can be extremely effective. Reviews show that programmes lasting just a few hours can strengthen family relationships over a period of one to five years (Carroll & Doherty, 2003; Moran et al, 2005).

For example, a major study of 3,000 families in the US found that divorce rates were 30% lower over the first five years of marriage amongst those who had completed a well-organised marriage preparation programme (Stanley et al, 2006). With UK family breakdown so heavily concentrated in the early years of marriage and parenthood, even modest improvements in family stability at these key stages will still prove highly cost effective."

"Since relationship programmes have been shown to reduce family breakdown and improve family outcomes (Carroll & Doherty, 2003), there is a strong case for improving access and provision as well as normalising such programmes from their current position at the margins."

Taken from : "Family Breakdown," in Breakthrough Britain: Ending the costs of social breakdown. Policy Recommendations to the Conservative Party, pp 67-182. Callan S., et al, 2007.

Earlier reports on the outcome of this intervention [relationship skills course] program have been encouraging. Couples learned the skills taught in the program (Floyd & Markman, 1984), and up to 3 years after the program, intervention couples showed higher levels of marital satisfaction and lower levels of relationship instability than did control couples (Markman et. Al., 1988).

There are effects clearly demonstrating a significant impact of the intervention on couples functioning years after intervention.

Specifically, at Follow-Up 3, intervention couples [those who took part in the course] showed greater use of communication skills, greater positive affect, more problem-solving skill, and more support and validation than did control couples.

Taken from: "Preventing marital distress through communication and conflict management training: a 4- and 5-year follow-up." - Markman, H. J., Renick, M. J., Floyd, F., Stanley, S. and Clements, M. (1993)Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61: 70-77.

Another study (Hahlweg et al., 1998) reported a three-year follow-up of German couples who participated in a premarital couple communications and problem-solving skill programme similar to PREP. After three years, participant couples, who were then married, showed significant positive differences in regard to dissolution rates, relationship satisfaction and positive communication behaviours in comparison to a control group.

Taken from: "Premarital counselling: a focus for family therapy", Robert F. Stahmann Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 22 Issue 1, Pages: 104,116 Published Online: 16th Dec 2002

Read Katharine Hill's article on Marriage Preparation at www.lookingatlife.org.uk