LONG TERM EFFECTS OF PREMARITAL INTERVENTION

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Funding is sought for a four year longitudinal study to conduct a large scale community-based prevention trial of a program designed to teach premarital couples skills for handling conflict. In earlier funding periods we developed and evaluated a theory driven, empirically-based conflict-management skill-training program (The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program, PREP) that has been successful in a number of small controlled intervention trials. This proposal moves to the next stage of our prevention research program. The major aim of this proposal is to conduct larger prevention trials with a clearly defined population that represents the ultimate targets for our program (couples getting married in the US) in an existing service delivery system (Religious Organizations). Seventy-five percent of first marriages occur in Religious Organizations most of which are already committed to providing some form of premarital intervention. Thus, a second aim of this project is to evaluate the extent to which we can train clergy or lay leaders to deliver the PREP program in religious settings - - settings where most couples who marry already receive some services. By "training trainers" we take advantage of an "multiplier effect" in the dissemination of the program. To the extent we can institutionalize a successful program for divorce and distress prevention in the community, we can have a major impact on the high rates of destructive marital conflict and divorce and associated mental health problems. To accomplish these aims we will randomly select 180 Religious Organizations (RO) from a larger group of eligible RO's, and randomly assign ROs to one of four conditions: 1) PREP delivered by trained clergy/lay leaders, 2) PREP delivered by our University of Denver based team, 3) An information-based program that controls for attention-placebo factors, and 4) Naturally occurring premarital intervention services. Outcome measures will be expanded beyond typical measures of marital quality, to include mental health outcomes and we will assess the extent to which yearly booster sessions can enhance the maintenance of preventive effects over time.