Marriage 101: An integrated academic and experiential undergraduate marriage education course^*

Abstract

We describe ''Marriage 101: Building Loving and Lasting Partnerships,'' an innovative, for-credit undergraduate course at a large, religiously unaffiliated research university. Marriage 101 engages students in the scientific literature and discourse in the psychology and sociology of marriage and marital success. The course has the additional explicitly practical goals of preparing students to choose compatible partners, to face inevitable challenges, and to experience greater marital and relationship satisfaction. To achieve these goals, Marriage 101 integrates traditional academic methods with experiential and self-discovery assignments. Four years of experience with 150 students has found students eager to learn and able to do so, gaining considerable insight about themselves and the challenges of intimate relationships.

Drinking and Dating: Examining the Link Among Relationship Satisfaction, Hazardous Drinking, and Readiness-to-Change in College Dating Relationships

“…For example, the provision of relationship education programs, which has been shown to effectively reduce divorce and distress among married adults (Hawkins, Blanchard, Baldwin, & Fawcett, 2008), has also been received favorably by young adult college students (Olmstead et al, 2011). Moreover, recent efforts to provide relationship education in the form of a formal elective course (see Neilsen, Pinsof, Rampage, Solomon, & Goldestein, 2004) or as part of existing high-enrollment courses (see Fincham, Stanley, & Rhoades, 2010) have shown considerable promise in building college students’ relationship knowledge, communication skills, and reducing risky sexual behaviors. Given findings from the present study and the previously documented benefits of healthy romantic relationships to the mental and physical health of college students (Braithwaite et al, 2010; Simon & Barrett, 2010; Whitton et al, 2013), efforts to provide relationship education to college students in the form of stand-alone programs or by integrating relationship education curriculums into existent university courses may be one strategy to promote healthier drinking behaviors among college students.…”

Predicting Marital Adjustment from Young Adults’ Initial Levels and Changes in Emotional Intimacy over Time: A 25-Year Longitudinal Study

“…The findings of this study may be valuable for professionals who work with college-aged or young adults in a group, counseling, or psychoeducational setting (Nielsen et al 2004). Because the development and maintenance of intimate relationships with others was a predictor of later marital success, facilitating the development of intimacy could be a core focus when designing relationship education for college-aged individuals.…”

Implementing Relationship Education for Emerging Adult College Students: Insights from the Field

“…However, such education predated this infusion of funding (Doherty & Anderson, 2004;Brotherson & Duncan, 2004). Unique to these new projects was the development of programs for populations that had been previously ignored, including low-income (Kerpelman et al, 2010;Ooms & Wilson, 2004), underserved (Skogrand, Barrios-Bell, & Higginbotham, 2009;Stanley, Allen, Markman, Rhoades, & Prentice, 2010), and structurally diverse families (Dion & Hershey, 2010;Higginbotham & Skogrand, 2010), while enhancing the credibility of existing programs for other special populations (see Gardner, Giese, & Parrot, 2004;Nielsen, Pinsof, Rampage, Solomon, & Goldstein, 2004).…”