Premarital education is a process in which couples learn what to expect in marriage in preparation for living together. Before marriage, couples are most knowledgeable about the usual relationship challenges and having only spent a little amount of time together; such a couple does not know much about each other ( Williamson et al., 2018 ). This education simulates the problems that are expected in every healthy marriage and ensure that the couple is aware that they have to solve the challenges. This therapy creates more preparedness and evaluates how well coping the people in a relationship are ( Carlson et al., 2020 ). There are various programs in this therapy which include the prevention relationship enhancement program and the PREPARE inventory which are meant to navigate existing and foreseeable conflicts.
Prevention Relationship Enhancement Program
PREP is a combination of several sessions that are meant to create a better behavioural approach and consciousness about the conflict in couples going into a long term relationship. There has been a high rate of divorces in America, showing the various societal crises that have affected people living in the USA. 39% of those that marry in the USA end up in separation ( Clyde et al., 2019 ). This fact is oblivious of the fact that more and more couples end in unresolved crises that lead to the killing of one or both of the people in a relationship with each other. Mostly, the rate of divorce currently stands at 2.9 per 1000 population, which is a decline from 3.2 per 1000 people in 2014, which is still high ( Clyde et al., 2020 ). This program involves the use of two techniques which include cognitive-behavioural therapy and communication-oriented therapy. The cognitive-behavioural approach enhances the view of the relationship and the creation of behaviours that accommodate one's partner. The communication-oriented treatment solves issues such as lack of communication or negative communication tendencies such as shouting.
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Objectives
The main aim of the PREP is to help the couples achieve better communication skills, managing conflict and problem-solving. These objectives are created to help the individuals to move towards realizing common goals through communication by removing barriers. Some of the skills in communication include listening and talking to each other more. Conflict management is a crucial objective as the couples can realize the source of conflict and solve the dispute before the relationship gets to aggression or violence stage ( Clyde et al., 2019 . In essence, domestic violence which is a significant cause of many separations, is as a result of poor or negative communication or inability by individuals to solve problems amicably before the issues develop.
The program aims at achieving better teamwork to ensure that the couple gravitates towards setting and achieving goals together as opposed to individual goals. The other objective of this program is to ensure that there is the enhancement of the relationship to make sure that the friendship lasts longer. Couples that form a bond before marriage are more likely to last longer in marriage ( Hilpert et al., 2016 ). The primary goal, in this case, is to create flexibility among couples as regards solving problems by understanding each other.
Results
A research conducted by the CDC in 2006 indicated the use of this program by more than 750 sites, including the religious groups the military and professional groups such as counselling centres. From this study, couples indicated higher levels of satisfaction 3years after attending this program. In a term of 5years after the intervention of this program, husbands who had taken part showed more satisfaction in their relationship. This study indicated that this program was effective in creating a better perception of the partner and one's roles. While 50% of couples were likely to divorce in normal circumstances, a more significant percentage was as a result of lack of defined role hence lack of individual responsibility to achieve happiness for themselves and the other person ( Clyde et al., 2019 . This training has been seen to increase conflict management and enhance a better relationship between married individuals. While those involved are likely to indicate more sexual satisfaction three years after the intervention, couples show higher tolerance and lesser conflicts for more than 12 years after the intervention. This fact suggests that the cause of disintegration is not the conflicts but the inability to solve them. The effectiveness of this program is based on creating a stronger bond to start seeing issues as a couple as opposed to individual view.
Prepare Inventory
This program is a 195-item inventory that is useful in generating and examining marital problems while comparing with the view of these problems before marriage. Some of the items of the list include marital expectations, sex and personality issues. In essence, expectations are essential issues to address as in most cases, the relationship changes after marriage as one realizes that they were not mentally ready for the responsibilities. Also, sex is a crucial issue as 80% of separating couples site infidelity as one of the causes which are in most cases caused by lack of sexual satisfaction or lack of it altogether ( Hajrezaei et al., 2018 ). Essentially, the counsellor prepares questions for the couple, which is answered by both partners. The questions revolve around their view of financial, emotional and child care responsibilities. With this inventory, the professional can evaluate the problems in the communication between the couple as well as the conflicting expectations of the partners. Additionally, this program allows the counsellor to categorize the couple as being traditional, harmonious, conflicted or vitalized. The categories are based on how close or far apart, their ideas or expectations are from each other.
Objectives
One of the objectives of the inventory is to zero in on the differences in the cognition of marriage as an institution. In essence, married life is in various instances far from what the couple experienced during courtship. Courtship, for example, is a period where the relationship thrives based on intimacy as the couple tries to learn the behaviours of each other. However, the actions of the partners are only more significant when the couple settles down ( Leijten et al., 2018 ). Therefore, the inventory is meant to learn what each partner knows about marriage against what they are already experiencing while dating.
The inventory achieves the goal of establishing the difference between the expectations by each partner and the reality. While a more significant percentage of women getting into marriage may expect that the man will take them out as often as they have during the dating period, the men are likely to expect to share more time at home having homemade supper. This conflict in expectations is critical and must be solved by the couple themselves to solve over expectations ( Adams, 2019 ). Also, the inventory helps in managing disputes that arise from the views of the partners.
The objective is also to find out how different or alike the partners are to each other in terms of the view of issues. This conflict of personalities is essential to be aware of for the partners to understand each other more. While some may be able to open up about issues, others may incline more towards introversion, thus failing to point out items they do not like. This inventory aims to learn the personalities through their views and help the couple learn new ways of solving issues without piling the challenges, which in several cases ends up in fights ( Hasankhani & Vatankhah, 2016 ). These items if solved the partners, will find common ground.
Results
According to the 2003 study by marriage and religion research institute, the PREPARE inventory was more effective in changing view of marriage among couples. 90% of the couples on who the program was used showed a positive impact by moving from one category to another ( Hasankhani & Vatankhah, 2016 ). For instance, 83% of those categorized as conflicted moved to a positive relationship with a realization of 52% of couples who were classified as most satisfied after an intervention ( Duncan et al., 2018 ). As indicative through the study, the PREPARE Inventory is, in most instances responsible for movement to more positive categories by 80% of couples that are initially seen as being high risk.
This inventory is crucial in ensuring that the intervention is driven by the couples themselves with a little help from the counsellor. Essentially, this approach helps to produce long-lasting results as the partners understand how the other person relates to those they love or how they express their issues ( Duncan et al., 2018 ). It is a mission to learn the ideas of the other person to adjust one's view or strengthen each other's opinions of the relationship with an emphasis on the future. This program is effective as it creates an opportunity to analyze why the individuals in the links have conflicts.
References
Adams, B. A. (2019). The Critical First Years of Marriage: Foundations of Successful Relationships . Biola University.
Carlson, R. G., Daire, A. P., & Hipp, C. J. (2020). Education, Enrichment Programs, and Premarital Counseling. The Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy, Systemic Family Therapy with Couples , 3 , 51.
Clyde, T. L., Hawkins, A. J., & Willoughby, B. J. (2020). Revising premarital relationship interventions for the next generation. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy , 46 (1), 149-164.
Clyde, T. L., Wikle, J. S., Hawkins, A. J., & James, S. L. (2019). The effects of premarital education promotion policies on US divorce rates. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law .
Duncan, S. F., Rogers, M. A., & McAllister, S. (2018). Individual Personality and Emotional Readiness Characteristics Associated with Marriage Preparation Outcomes of Perceived Helpfulness and Change. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy , 17 (3), 209-226.
Hajrezaei, B., Navabinejad, S., & Kiamanesh, A. (2018). The efectiveness of an integrated approach of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Olson's preparation approach on marriage expectation and responsibility among unmarried girls. Journal of Family Psychology , 5 (1), 31-44.
Hasankhani, S., & Vatankhah, H. (2016). The effectiveness of PREPARE-ENRICH Program on subjective well-being and sexual self-efficacy of Iranian Couples. International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS) ISSN 2356-5926 , 3 (1), 1849-1857.
Hilpert, P., Bodenmann, G., Nussbeck, F. W., & Bradbury, T. N. (2016). Improving personal happiness through couple intervention: A randomized controlled trial of a self-directed couple enhancement program. Journal of Happiness Studies , 17 (1), 213-237.
Leijten, P., Melendez‐Torres, G. J., Gardner, F., Van Aar, J., Schulz, S., & Overbeek, G. (2018). Are relationship enhancement and behavior management “The Golden Couple” for disruptive child behavior? Two meta‐analyses. Child development , 89 (6), 1970-1982.
Williamson, H. C., Hammett, J. F., Ross, J. M., Karney, B. R., & Bradbury, T. N. (2018). Premarital education and later relationship help-seeking. Journal of Family Psychology , 32 (2), 276.
