Relationship education is widely available to couples and is intended to reduce the prevalence of relationship distress, divorce, and the associated personal and social costs. To realize the potential benefits of couple relationship education, it needs to be evidence-based, offered in ways that attract couples at high-risk for relationship problems, and focused on factors that put couples at high-risk for future relationship problems.

Data from a longitudinal study were used to examine differences among couples that cohabited before engagement, after engagement, or not until marriage. Survey data and objectively coded couple interaction data were collected for 136 couples (272 individuals) after engagement (but before marriage) and 10 months into marriage. At both time points, the before-engagement cohabiters (59 couples) had more negative interactions, lower interpersonal commitment, lower relationship quality, and lower relationship confidence than those who did not cohabit until after engagement (28 couples) or marriage (49 couples), even after controlling for selection factors and duration of cohabitation. Our findings suggest that those who cohabit before engagement are at greater risk for poor marital outcomes than those who cohabit only after engagement or at marriage, which may have important implications for future research on cohabitation, clinical work, and social policy decisions.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women.

We present an evaluation of the extent to which an empirically based couples' intervention program was successfully disseminated in the community. Clergy and lay leaders from 27 religious organizations who were trained to deliver the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) were contacted approximately yearly for 5 years following training to determine whether they still used PREP and which aspects were used. Results indicated that 82% continued to use at least parts of the program, especially parts dealing with communication and conflict management. Results also showed that clergy and lay leaders extended the use of the curriculum from premarital couples to married couples. We discuss implications for future efforts toward disseminating empirically based programs into community settings.

(Connor-Smith, Compas, Wadsworth, Thomsen, & Saltzman, 2000) to examine coping and involuntary stress responses in reference to terrorism and across a wide age range was examined. Implications for coping theory and empirical research are explored.

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