Fact Sheets
Healthy Marriage Matters
Research suggests all things being equal, children who grow up in healthy married, two-parent families do better on a host of outcomes than those who do not. Further, many social problems affecting children, families, and communities could be prevented if more children grew up in healthy, married families.
Marriage Education for Couples Becoming Parents
The transition to parenthood, especially with a first child, creates a fundamental life change for the couple involved. The transition requires couples to adapt their relationship and individual roles, improve their communication skills, and contend with their existing life responsibilities while assuming responsibility for a child. Expectant couples are naturally concerned about the well-being of their child, and thus may be especially open to learning new information; adopting new, positive behaviors; and improving their marital relations. Although programs generally focus on married couples, the transition to parenthood is also a moment when both unmarried and married couples can strengthen their relationship and benefit from education about healthy marriage.
Premarital and Marriage Education
Marriage education, a relatively new approach to preventing marital distress and breakdown, is based on the premise that couples can learn how to build and maintain successful, stable marriages. Couples can learn how to increase the behaviors that make a marriage successful and decrease those associated with marital distress and divorce. Strong, healthy marriages have benefits for couples and their children. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) concluded that destructive parental conflict is one of the generic risk factors for child and adult mental health problems. Mismanaged conflict predicts both marital distress and negative effects for children. Conflicts at home can even lead to decreased work productivity, especially for men.