Hint of the Month and News Update - September, 2007
Past Hints
 
Benefits of Premarital Education

Couples being encouraged to participate in the prepare program often ask what the benefits of doing so what be. Several years ago, Scott M. Stanley (Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver) reviewed a wide range of theoretical and research publications and argued in a significant policy paper that engaging in broadly applied premarital education can lead to significant effects. 

Four key benefits of premarital education were identified:

      (a) it can slow couples down to foster deliberation 
      (b) it sends a message that marriage matters 
      (c) it can help couples learn of options if they need help later 
      (d) it can lower some couples’ risks for subsequent marital distress or termination provided that the program has evidence of effectiveness associated with it (as is the case for the Prepare programs)
These observations represent a good clear summary of benefits that could be shared with couples when Administrators are encouraging couples to participate in premarital education programs.

Reference: 

Scott M. Stanley (2001). Making A Case for Premarital Education.Family Relations, 50, 272–280.
 

 Past Hints  Last Month : Handling Abuse Issues  
 
News Update:  

    The June 2007 issue of the Newsletter, the Prepare Diary, is available on this web site: To read, click on: June 2007 Diary    The next newsletter will be posted in mid-June. 

    PROCESSING FEE NOW $44.00  
    This is the first increase in the base cost of processing since 1999.  Our aim is to maintain the new processing charge for a lengthy period of time (as we have done before). We always aimed to make the processing cost comparable to that of a modest meal for a couple – we feel sure that $44 (for a couple) is still well and truly within those limits.