Australian Bureau of Statistics information indicates that the proportion of Australian men and women cohabiting before marrying has increased threefold since 1977:

• 1977 - 25% of couples cohabited before marriage
• 1987 - 42% of couples cohabited before marriage
• 1997 - 65% of couples cohabited before marriage
• 2007 - 77% of couples cohabited before marriage
• 2010 - 79% of couples cohabited before marriage
• 2016 - 81% of couples cohabited before marriage

When couples put effort towards something, it can be helpful to foresee outcomes, and articulating those outcomes (relationship and family outcomes) and being mindful of them along the way will help guide the couple to find success through their relationship journey.

Conflict tends to grow out of a lack of understanding and communication around money and how it relates to a couples relationship.

Financial management is often a source of conflict for couples, causing tension when there isn’t enough, when it isn’t allocated correctly, and when there are different ideas surrounding its purpose.

Conflict tends to grow out of a lack of understanding and communication around money and how it relates to a couples relationship.

A study in the US has shown that couples with strong marriages may be able to play a significant mentoring role for less satisfied couples and become even stronger in the process. (McClurkan, J. S., The effect of couple-to-couple-mentoring on weak marriage relationships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003).

The recruiting and selection process for Marriage Mentor Couples is very important, thus the following 5-step process has been developed.

All Marriage Mentor couples must be trained and directly supervised by a professional counsellor, lead couple or clergy member with solid experience in marriage education, certified in the PREPARE/ENRICH Program.

Pre-Marital Mentoring Programs using PREPARE/ENRICH Dramatically Reduces Divorce Rate to Two Percent. Since 1995, South Hills Church of Christ in Abilene Texas, under the leadership of Pastor Robert Oglesby, has offered a premarital mentoring program based on PREPARE/ENRICH.

The PREPARE-ENRICH program was offered by marriage mentors to 1,070 low income couples over a four year period, 62% were married and 38% were premarital couples.