Information for Clergy, Educators, Counsellors & Celebrants interested in training to use PREPARE-ENRICH
 
What is the PREPARE-ENRICH program? 

Research 

Who may train to administer the inventories? 

When and where is training available?
 
 
 
What is the PREPARE-ENRICH program?
 
The PREPARE-ENRICH program is designed to assist a variety of professionals (mainly counsellors, educators, and religious celebrants) working with premarital or married couples. Professionals who have been trained and accredited to work with the PREPARE-ENRICH materials in Australia are called Administrators. For a couple, after being invited to participate and having the program explained to them, the first step is to take one of the inventories in order to provide a self-report description of their relationship: 
  • PREPARE - for premarital couples
  • PREPARE-CC -  for cohabiting premarital couples
  • PREPARE-MC - for premarital couples with children 
  • ENRICH - for married couples 
  • MATE - for couples over the age of 50 
All these inventories have been carefully constructed to be comprehensive, diagnostically valuable and are designed to facilitate a meaningful dialogue between the Administrator and the couple. The PREPARE-ENRICH inventories have been scientifically developed to have high levels of reliability, validity and clinical utility. Standardised norms have been developed for all four inventories. 

In Australia, the couple’s answer sheets and scoring fee (A$44.00 includes GST) are sent to the PREPARE-ENRICH office in Sydney. The answer sheets are scanned and scored and the results are summarised in a 15-page Computer Report that is sent to the Administrator together with other resources associated with the program. The scoring service operates on a daily basis in the working week and returns are normally completed on the same day they are received by the office. 

As well as providing important demographic and background information for a couple, twenty areas are assessed in each of the inventories, and individual and couple responses in these areas are summarised in the reports: 

A. Significant Issues for Couples (12 scales): 

  • Communication 
  • Conflict Resolution 
  • Personality Issues 
  • Financial Management 
  • Marital Leisure Activities 
  • Sexual Expectations 
  • Children and Parenting 
  • Family and Friends 
  • Realistic Expectations 
  • Idealistic Distortions 
  • Role Relationship 
  • Spiritual Beliefs 
B. Personality Assessment (4 scales): 
  • Assertiveness 
  • Self Confidence 
  • Avoidance 
  • Partner Dominance 
C. Couple and Family Map (4 scales): 
  • Closeness and Flexibility of Family-of-Origin 
  • Closeness and Flexibility of Couple Relationship/Marriage 
The next step is for the couple to return for a number of feedback sessions (as determined by them and the administrator). Couples receive a 25 page workbook called Building A Strong Marriage which is designed to help a couple to complete six exercises that are intended to usefully complement the feedback dialogue being facilitated by the Administrator. 

There are six couple exercises to complement the larger feedback process: 

  1. Building Strength and Growth areas 
  2. Couple Communication Exercise 
  3. Ten Steps for Resolving Couple Conflict 
  4. Family-of-Origin Issues 
  5. Financial Planning and Budget 
  6. Personal, couple and family goals 
The program has these goals: 
  1. To explore Relationship Strengths and Growth Areas 
  2. To learn Assertiveness and Active Listening Skills 
  3. To learn how to resolve conflict 
  4. To help the couple discuss their Family-of-Origin 
  5. To help the couple with financial planning and budget 
  6. To focus on personal, couple and family goals 
The Prepare-Enrich inventories were developed in the United States by: 
DAVID H. OLSON Ph.D 
Emeritus Professor, Family Social Science, University of Minnesota; Licensed Consulting Psychologist and Licensed Marital & Family Therapist, State of Minnesota. President of Life Innovations, USA. 

JOAN M. DRUCKMAN Ph.D 
Marriage and Family Counselor, Palo Alto, California; Co-directed study on "Effectiveness of Five Types of Premarital Preparation Programs." 

DAVID G. FOURNIER, Ph.D 
Associate Professor, Child and Family Development, Oklahoma State University; completed study of reliability and validity of PREPARE. 
Work was done on applying the inventories and resources to the Australian context by the late John Robson and Dr. Alan Craddock (Department of Psychology, University of Sydney) who sought feedback and advice from many Australian marriage educators and counsellors. Prepare-Enrich has provided a service in Australia since 1979. The most recent revision of the inventories (Version 2000) was introduced in 1996. Over 8,500 administrators have been trained in Australia and 50,000 couples have participated in the program throughout Australia in the last five years. A nation-wide team of Trainers continues to provide training and ongoing skills development for persons desirous of working with the Prepare-Enrich program. Apart from USA and Australia, there are international offices in New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan , Singapore, Sweden and South Africa. 
Research
 
The value of Prepare in particular has been demonstrated through research. In 1986 Blaine Fowers and David Olson published a study (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 1986, Vol. 12, No. 4, 403-413) designed to determine the predictive validity of PREPARE. This study assessed how helpful PREPARE scores would be in predicting marital success. A 3-year follow-up study was conducted with 164 couples who took PREPARE during their engagement. The authors reported that “…satisfied couples scored significantly higher on the inventory than dissatisfied couples, divorced couples, and couples who cancelled their marriage…Using discriminant analysis, it was found that the PREPARE scores from 3 months before marriage could predict with 80-90% accuracy which couples were separated and divorced from those that were happily married. These findings not only demonstrate the predictive validity of PREPARE, but its potential utility in identifying high-risk couples who could benefit from more intensive premarital counseling.” This finding was repeated in a second study by Andrea Larsen and David Olson published in 1989 (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 1989, Vol. 15, No. 3, 311-322). 

In 2000 Luke Knutson and David Olson evaluated the effectiveness of the PREPARE Program (Version 2000) with 100 premarital couples in three groups: the PREPARE Program group (who received an average of four feedback sessions), the PREPARE No Feedback group (who received feedback after the post-test), and the Control group (who received both PREPARE and feedback after the post-test). 

The PREPARE Program group showed significant positive change, from pre-test to post-test, on marriage expectations, communication, financial management, children and parenting, family and friends, couple closeness, couple flexibility and spiritual beliefs. The PREPARE No Feedback group also showed some significant changes but no significant changes occurred in the Control group. 
 
Who may train to administer the inventories?
 
Persons working with couples (eg. marriage celebrants, educators, counsellors) who already have formal training as a - 
  • Pastor/priest/minister/rabbi. 
  • Counsellor/Psychologist 
  • Educator 
  • Social Worker 
  • Worker trained in another relevant human resource discipline 
and – 
  • Lay people, who also have training in the above areas, nominated by, approved by, and supervised by and accountable to leaders of the institution (eg. clergy, pastors, priests) within which they will work. We are prepared to train such individuals and couples but they need to be selected and nominated with care.  Just because they are church members and have participated in a Prepare program as part of their own preparation for marriage is not a sufficient qualification. It is important to consider their knowledge and skills. 

    • The Marriage and Relationship Educators Association of Australia has developed a Users’ Guide for Relationship Educators.  One section of this guide is tailor-made for Educators who work with inventories such as the Prepare-Enrich range of resources.  Below is a summary list of the main areas of knowledge and competency detailed in the Users’ Guide.  These are listed below so that clergy may reflect on them and aim to look for these competencies when selecting and nominating lay couples and individuals for training as Prepare-Enrich Administrators. 

    To work effectively with inventories one needs to have: 

    Knowledge of... 

    • the content areas relevant to all topics and categories in the inventory 
    • teaching resources and strategies appropriate to individual styles and characteristics of adult learners in the context of using inventories
    • couple dynamics (e.g.. conflict processes)
    • the nature of domestic violence 
    • the key indicators, nature and impact of personal issues (e.g.. alcoholism) 
    • legal obligations relating to violence and child protection 
    • means of making appropriate referrals 
    • organisation standards and procedures 
    • self and the impact of personal experiences, biases, values and beliefs
    • the limitations and boundaries of the educator role 

    The ability to...  

    • deal with conflict and inappropriate behaviour and attitudes 
    • utilise a range of interpersonal skills 
    • work in a non-judgemental, empathetic and culturally sensitive manner . 
    • maintain confidentiality 
    • empower and support clients who are experiencing difficulties
    • show sensitivity to and work with a wide range of cultural groups and people with special needs 
    • communicate and relate to a wide range of people at various stages of family and life cycle development and from a variety of social and cultural contexts 
    • manage time and resources effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of the clients and the  goals/outcomes related to the use of the inventory
    • reflect and make appropriate changes to the approach in order to meet the needs of clients and the goals/outcomes related to the use of the inventory