Graduate Student University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas
Relationship education programs were designed as preventive interventions targeting couples who are currently in satisfying and well-functioning relationships in order to teach skills that will prevent later declines in relationship quality (Halford & Bodenmann, 2013; Hawkins et al., 2008). However, there is evidence that couples who are already dissatisfied in their relationship are participating in relationship education programs in an attempt to improve their relationships (DeMaria, 2005). Because relationship education programs were not designed as tertiary interventions, it is important to characterize the extent to which community-based relationship education programs are serving as preventive vs indicated interventions, and to examine whether there are differential outcomes based on level of relationship functioning at program entry. To examine these questions we use data from the Parents and Children Together study, which is a large-scale RCT of a relationship education program targeting low-income couples with children (N = 1595 couples). Participants provided self-report data at baseline, then were randomly assigned to an intervention condition in which they participated in the relationship education program, or a no treatment control condition. All couples were re-contacted 1 year after baseline to provide follow-up self-report data on their relationship functioning. Latent class analysis was used to identify groups of couples with different levels of baseline relationship functioning. Results of the LCA indicated a three-class model: a happy and stable group comprised the majority of the sample (67%), followed by a troubled but committed group (25%), and finally a small highly distressed group (8%). These three groups were analyzed separately to assess for treatment effects within each group. For the happy and stable group, couples who received the treatment were significantly higher in relationship satisfaction and commitment than couples in the control group. However, for couples in the troubled but committed and distressed groups, there were no significant differences between couples who did and did not receive the intervention. In sum, in a large-scale community-based relationship education program, about one-third of couples entering the program already show signs of distress, and those couples do not benefit from the intervention. However, couples who entered the program with a high-quality relationship did benefit from the intervention, in line with the preventive focus of these types of programs.
