The marriage moments program for couples transitioning to parenthood: divergent conclusions from formative and outcome evaluation data.
- Abstract:
- This article presents the results of a pilot study of the Marriage Moments program, designed to prevent relationship deterioration during the 1st year of parenthood. The self-guided, low-intensity program emphasizes strengthening marital virtues and partnership during this time of significant personal and family transition. One hundred fifty-five married couples participated in a randomized clinical trial with 2 psychoeducational treatment groups (a self-guided group and an instructor-encouraged group) and a comparable control group. Despite positive formative evaluation results from program participants, hierarchical linear modeling analyses failed to find significant Group x Time differences on spouses' reports of marital virtues and a set of relational outcome measures. This failure reinforces the need for psychoeducators to invest in outcome evaluation research before claiming program success.
- Authors:
- AJ Hawkins, EB Fawcett, JS Carroll, TT Gilliland
- Journal:
- J Fam Psychol
- Citation info:
- 20(4):561-570
- Publication date:
- 1st Dec 2006
- Full text
- DOI