Healthy Relationships California released a study of 5 years of data from 17,000 participants in Relationship and Marriage Education (RME). It says it is "by far, the largest study in the field of Relationship and Marriage Education." Findings include:
- 60% of married participants were satisfied with their relationship after participating in an RME (Relationship and Marriage Education) course, increasing to 69% of married participants 6 months after the course;
- 52% of highly distressed married participants experienced a significant decrease in relationship distress after taking an RME course;
- Unmarried participants from the lowest income bracket (under $15,000) increased their communication skills by 80%, while married participants from the lowest income bracket saw a 67% increase in these skills;
- Hispanics, Caucasians, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and all other ethnic groups included in this study experienced a 20% or greater increase in relationship satisfaction, communication skills and problem-solving skills;
- Hispanic participants experienced noteworthy positive impact, increasing their relationship satisfaction by 44%, their communication skills by 68%, and their problem-solving skills by 54% after participating in RME;
- TANF [welfare] recipients experienced lower rates of domestic violence, and reported significant increases in communication skills and job efficacy, after completing an RME program.
But will this affect divorce statistics? Probably not, unless (1) far more of these programs are put in place, to educate far more people, and (2) California starts collecting divorce statistics. Patty Howell, President of Healthy Relationships California, says, "It is not realistic with the current level of Federal funding for Relationship and Marriage Education work to have even these kinds of positive results show up in the divorce statistics, because of the relatively low saturation level we are able to reach in comparison with the number of married people in the population. With the funding allocated to grantees such as our organization, the Administration for Children and Families requires us to serve several different target populations, (in our case five), including Youth and Singles/unmarried participants. Accordingly, for Healthy Relationships California, of the 28,885 people we served this past year, 12,000 were married participants, 21% of whom identified themselves as "highly distressed" about their marriage as they began the Relationship and Marriage Education program. Accordingly, approximately 2,500 of our participants were in the "likely to divorce" category, against a pool of 14 million married Californians. The fact that our programs show 52% of this "highly distressed" population to be happy with their marriage at the end of the 8-16 hour Relationship and Marriage Education course is a huge win! Yet, that important result can never be expected to show up against the total number of married Californians until we have sufficient funding for this work that enables us to reach a critical mass."