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Program evaluation should be integral to family life education (FLE), but program administrators face common barriers, including expense, lack of evaluation expertise, and fear of no-effects findings. Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide a primer on feasible best-practice guidelines for the evaluation of FLE programs. Specifically, we explore four best practices in FLE program evaluation research in real-world field conditions: (a) clarify upfront the underlying program theory of change or logic model and make research decisions based on this model; (b) adopt a developmental perspective on program evaluation and a mentality of continuous quality improvement; (c) when ready, invest in rigorous impact evaluations with random assignment; and (d) share and synthesize evaluation work to strengthen the field. A theme woven throughout these best practices is for program administrators to collaborate with experienced evaluation researchers to deal with challenging issues. Following these best-practice guidelines will help program administrators overcome common barriers and conduct evaluation work that strengthens their programs over time and enriches the lives of families.School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, 2086-B JFSB, Provo, UT 84602 (hawkinsa@byu.edu).

In this article, we review research on contemporary social trends that influence the next generation's ability to form and sustain a healthy marriage. As a result, we argue for greater attention to premarital interventions for engaged couples to help the next generation address the potential challenges created by these trends. After we briefly review the current state of premarital education and counseling, we examine four general, interrelated social trends: individualism and commitment ambivalence, changing attitudes about marriage, premarital relationship histories, and the omnipresent media environment. In addition, we offer four general proposals corresponding to these trends that we believe will enhance the future effectiveness of premarital interventions. We urge premarital educators and counselors to evaluate their current interventions with these proposals in mind.

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The Effects of Premarital Education PromotionPolicies on U.S. Divorce Rates Tiffany Lura Clyde School of Family Life, BYU Master of Science Previous research has documented the effects of divorce on children, families, communities, taxpayers, and society. Accordingly, local, state, and national governments have enacted policies aimed at strengthening marriages and reducing divorce. Currently, ten states have enacted some form of premarital education promotion policy. However, no research has documented whether the implementation of premarital education promotion policies has actually decreased the divorce rate in implementing states. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate empirically the effectiveness of premarital education policy implementation on reducing early divorce rates. Prior to running any empirical analyses, an implementation study was conducted to understand how effectively each state implemented the premarital education promotion policy. A combination of methods was used for this study including reviewing the legislative documents, reviewing archival records, as well as interviewing academics and key persons associated with the bill. Following the implementation study, an impact study was conducted to analyze the effects of the policies on the divorce rates. Divorce rate data were obtained from NCHS National Vital Statistics Reports . To assess the effects of premarital education policies, difference-in-difference estimation using state fixed effects was employed. The results of the implementation study suggest that while the policies had similarities in their language and intent, the majority of the states had little or no formal oversight and implementation of the policy. Results of the impact study suggest that effectively implementing a policy is significantly associated with a .5% in the divorce rate after controlling for all other variables in the model. I conclude with a discussion of the implementation and impact studies results as well as suggestions for future policy efforts and research.