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Long-term prediction of marital quality following a relationship education program: being positive in a constructive

Donald H Baucom1, Kurt Hahlweg, David C Atkins

  • 1Psychology Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA. don_baucom@unc.edu

Journal of Family Psychology : JFP : Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43)
|August 30, 2006
PubMed

Relationship education programs such as Ehevorbereitung--Ein Partnerschaftliches Lernprogramm (Premarital Preparation--A Couples' Learning Program) and the Relationship Education and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) can help prevent marital distress among newlyweds. Thus, it is important to understand which couples respond best to the intervention and which couples respond less well. E. A. Schilling, D. H. Baucom, C. K. Burnett, E. A. Allen, and L. Ragland (2003) unexpectedly found that the more women increased positive communication in response to PREP, the more likely they were to become distressed in the subsequent 5 years. The current study explores similar issues, investigating a relationship education program in Germany. The current results indicate that couples are susceptible to future relationship distress if women demonstrate extreme increases in positive and decreases in negative communication after intervention. Implications are provided for adapting these relationship education programs in the future.

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