•  IN THE FUTURE - A NEW VERSION OF PREPARE

   
END-OF-YEAR HOLIDAY CLOSING   

Please note that the PREPARE-ENRICH Processing Centre will close on Friday 19th December 2008 and reopen on Monday 5th January 2009.

Thanks for your commitment to using Prepare-Enrich. We hope you have a Happy Christmas and we look forward to continuing to serve you in 2009.


ENCOURAGING NEW ADMINISTRATORS

Please let your colleagues know about PREPARE-ENRICH and tell them about our website (www.prepare-enrich.com.au). On that site they can read information about all the PREPARE materials and resources. By clicking on the training link on the Administrators' homepage, they can locate a workshop or find contact details for a Trainer in their area.
 

PLEASE MAKE USE OF OUR HINTS ON THE WEB 

We are strongly committed to helping you to work as competently as possible with the PREPARE-ENRICH materials. At the beginning of each month we place a brief (usually one page) article focusing on a matter or theme that is likely to be helpful to PREPARE-ENRICH administrators.  Sometimes this is a brief summary of relevant research, sometimes a practical suggestion, and sometimes a way of thinking about couples' issues.  It is good to get into the habit of reading these monthly hints.  The current hint, and an archive of all the hints posted in previous months, can be accessed from the Administrators' main page. Any updated news items are also included.
 

IN THE FUTURE - A NEW VERSION OF PREPARE

A new version of the Prepare-Enrich materials will be introduced into Australia next year and will be called Prepare-Enrich: The Customized Version. It is first being released for use in the USA in January, 2009 and we anticipate that it will become available in Australia in June, 2009 at the earliest. The Australian version will be tailor-made for local use.

The Australian office will write to Administrators in 2009 to inform them when the new version is available, how to obtain more information and exactly how to begin using it. Further training will not be necessary - any active Administrator trained in Version 2000 will have access to the new version if they so desire. The new version will only be available on-line (but with provision for downloading hard copies of booklets and data entry by Administrators if they so desire).

We will aim to maintain and support Version 2000 locally for a period of 2-3 years.  The following is a brief summary of the main features of the new version as it currently stands in the US version. The Australian version will be similar in structure but some of the item wording will be revised. One of the advantages of the new version being on-line is that we can make ongoing changes that are warranted as we obtain feedback from couples and Administrators.

This article is designed to provide Administrators with some advance information about the general features of the new version.

OVERVIEW OF THE CUSTOMIZED VERSION

The Customized Version is an exciting new approach to couple assessment since it is tailor-made to each couple.  While this idea was conceived years ago, it is only with the advent of the internet systems that is has become possible to create and to use this dynamic online system.

The Customized Version creates the most relevant variety of scales for each couple.  Instead of the five versions we had in Version 2000, we now have the potential of several hundred versions of PREPARE/ENRICH.  The five PREPARE/ENRICH inventories in Version 2000 were:  PREPARE (for premarital couples), PREPARE-CC (for Cohabiting Couples), PREPARE-MC (for Marriage with Children), ENRICH (for married couples) and MATE (for couples over 55 years of age).

The Customized Version is based on background questions the couple answers about their relationship.  The first main category is the stage of their relationship ñ whether they are dating, engaged or married.  Additional questions relate to their age and whether there are children involved in the relationship.

It uses several categories or scales that are present in Version 2000:

These include 10 core scales from the previous versions of PREPARE/ENRICH:

• Idealistic Distortion
• Communication
• Conflict Resolution
• Partner Style and Habits (Personality Issues in V2000)
• Financial Management
• Leisure Activities
• Affection and Sexuality (Sexual Expectations in V2000)
• Family and Friends
• Relationship Roles
• Spiritual Beliefs (in the new version four different versions of this scale are available: Standard; Protestant; Catholic; Jewish; Interfaith/Interchurch)

The last 9 of these scales are used for the assessment of the Couple Typology.

The core scales also include the scales associated with the Couple and Family Map:

• Couple Closeness
• Couple Flexibility
• Family Closeness
• Family Flexibility

 Also included are the four scales associated with Relationship Dynamics:

• Assertiveness
• Self-Confidence
• Avoidance
• Partner Dominance

 
It adds a number of new categories or scales:

All couples will answer five new personality scales called SCOPE (based on the Five Factor Model of Personality):

• Social
• Change
• Organized
• Pleasing
• Emotionally Steady

All couples will respond to a new Personal Stress Profile identifying:

• General level of personal stress
• Top 10 stressors

Other new scales created for the Customized Version are presented to a couple in a form that depends upon their particular circumstances as identified in their pattern of background responses. These include scales that assess:

• Cultural/Ethnic Issues
• Interfaith/Interchurch Issues (as noted earlier in the comments on the Spiritual Beliefs scale)
• Parenting Issues (a variety of new scales based on the age of the child and parenting situations - Becoming Parents, Children, Step Parenting, Intergenerational Issues)
• Cohabitation Issues (where relevant)
• Forgiveness Issues
• Commitment Issues
• Previous Marriage Issues

New scales that were created for the Customized Version include Cultural/Ethnic Issues, Interfaith/Interchurch, Forgiveness and a variety of scales for parenting based on the age of the child and parenting situations (Becoming Parents, Children, Step Parenting, Intergenerational Issues).  This includes just a sample of the new scales created and to be created for the Customized Version. 

NEW FEATURES IN THE CUSTOMIZED VERSION

One of the new features of the Customized Version is that specialized versions were developed for various groups.  We have different versions for various religious traditions including Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish.  There is also a version that can be selected for couples in an interfaith/interchurch relationship.

Many couples and Administrators have requested that we develop a brief report containing some of the major results that the couple could review and keep. In the Customized Version a 10 page Coupleís Report has been created which includes the core categories and Couple Type, the Couple & Family Maps, the SCOPE Personality scales, and the Personal Stress Profile. This can be downloaded and printed (in full or in part) by the facilitator.

The Administrator's Report is now in a more user friendly and simpler format (about 20 pages and in portrait mode). The basic structure of the report and the way of working with it is very similar to the current report. The facilitator report can be downloaded, read and printed (in full or in part) by the facilitator.

Language translations for PREPARE/ENRICH have always been a challenge, but this has been overcome with the Customized Version.  The goal is to ultimately have the Customized Version in many different languages.  The long-term intention is to create an online translation system that will support multiple languages, allowing each person to take the inventory in the language they select.  The administrator can also choose the language in which they would like to print the Administratorís Report.

As a companion to the Customized PREPARE/ENRICH assessments, there is a Couple's Workbook containing more than 20 exercises covering 14 different content areas.  In the workbook, there are six core Couple Exercises for giving feedback to couples.  These couple exercises are designed to help the couple process and deal with the issues raised by the assessment.  The six core Couple Exercises are:

          1.     Sharing Strength and Growth Areas
          2.     Creating a Wish List using Assertiveness & Active Listening
          3.     Ten Steps for Resolving Conflict
          4.      Couple & Family Map - Mapping your Relationship
          5.      Personal Stress Profile - Identifying Most Critical Issues
          6.      Personality Exercise - SCOPE out our Personality

In addition to these six couple exercises, the Customized Version contains many other exercises, many of which are new to the PREPAR/ENRICH Program.  The new couple exercises include topics related to personality, stress, roles, expectations, and stepfamilies.  The wide range of exercises allows the administrator to further personalize the feedback experience to match the needs of each couple.  These couple exercises are designed to be used in feedback sessions so that the couple can resolve current issues and learn skills to deal with future issues. The administrator will be able to select the set of exercises they prefer to use with a particular couple and download and print these for use with the couple. Our view is that these are excellent materials.

We hope that you will find the Customized Version helpful - remember, we will write to you personally to let you know when and how you can begin using the new version and how to obtain more detailed information about the new version. We expect to begin contacting existing users sometime in May or June next year. Further details will not be available until then.

Editor: Dr. Alan Craddock, National Coordinator of Prepare-Enrich (Australia).