The Impact of the Within My Reach Relationship Training on Relationship Skills and Outcomes for Low‐Income Individuals

Abstract

A federal grant was awarded to provide the Within My Reach healthy relationships curriculum to low-income, at-risk individuals involved with various social service agencies. The effectiveness of this curriculum was evaluated for 202 participants through measures of training and relationship outcomes pre-, immediately post- and 6 months posttraining. Participants experienced high levels of training satisfaction; significant increases in knowledge, communication/conflict resolution skills, and relationship quality; as well as a trend in the reduction of relationship violence. An important implication of this research is that MFTs may broaden their service delivery to at-risk individuals by collaborating with community agencies to adapt established relationship enhancement programs, evidence-based tools, and principles that complement traditional couples therapy.

Using Individual-Oriented Relationship Education to Prevent Family Violence

“…Finally, the results indicated significant, positive change from pre-program to follow-up on communication quality and conflict management, as well as a trend toward a reduction in relationship aggression. The effect size (Cohen’s d ) for the change in aggression across the 6-month period was .29, indicating a small to medium effect, although it did not reach the conventional level of statistical significance (Antle et al, in press). However, the effect of the program on the reduction of aggression becomes significant at the one-year follow-up (Becky Antle, personal communication, August, 2009).…”

“…Antle and colleagues (in press) carried out the first quantitative study on the effectiveness of Within My Reach . In this study, 202 individuals (76.7% women) took part in Within My Reach at a neighborhood center.…”

Examining Parental Alliance for Low-Income Participants Who Attended Relationship Education With or Without a Partner

“…Participants attending with a committed partner receive PREP's Within Our Reach (WOR) and participants attending individually receive PREP's Within My Reach (WMR). We used workshop participation status (attending alone or with a partner) as a means to determine program eligibility because it allowed program staff a clear, concrete, measure of program eligibility; however, it should be noted that several other factors should be considered when assigning participants to either workshop (see Antle et al, 2013, for a more through description). We made a programmatic decision to make this distinction more clear, and practical, for the project staff as they recruited and scheduled participants to begin workshops.…”

Training Child Welfare Professionals to Support Healthy Couple Relationships: Examining the Link to Training Transfer

“…Consistent with studies on prevention training with couples (Braukhaus, Hahlweg, Kroeger, Groth, & Fehm-Wolfsdorf, 2003), follow-up booster sessions for trainees, as well as regular feedback and assessments (Antle et al, 2013), may also be helpful in reinforcing key principles, retention of learning, and appropriate application of the information. In the present study booster sessions were not included, but all of the teaching tools and training information (e.g., video modules) are available online (http://www.hrmet.org) for CWPs to access and review.…”