Long Term Effect of Premarital Intervention

描述（由申请人提供）：该提案的总体目标是继续在宗教组织（RO）向婚前夫妇提供婚姻教育计划（PREP，预防和关系增强计划）的大规模社区预防试验。该方案旨在降低风险因素，提高婚姻痛苦和相关心理健康问题的保护因素。鉴于婚姻痛苦与精神障碍之间的密切联系，努力预防因婚姻冲突而导致的精神障碍比后期和更昂贵的治疗有很大的优势。将RO作为一个交付系统是很重要的，因为RO已经成为许多不寻求心理健康专业人员服务的人的预防和咨询的一种不那么污名化的资源。这项工作评估了通过在关键的成年过渡期（即，结婚）。这项工作建议，按照现有的样本217对夫妇进入一个高风险期的困扰和离婚（5年至10年的婚姻），以评估长期/持久的预防效果婚前干预婚姻困扰和精神疾病的症状。我们还将测试和完善我们的理论模型，如何有针对性的风险（例如，负相互作用）和保护因素（例如，处理冲突的信心）随着时间的推移与婚姻困扰和精神障碍有关。好处包括加强社区现有的“自然”干预措施（婚前咨询），并接触那些可能不通过传统精神卫生系统寻求服务的人群（例如，男性、少数群体成员）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching aim of this proposal is to continue a large-scale community based prevention trial of a marriage education program (PREP, Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program) delivered in Religious Organizations (ROs) to premarital couples. This program is designed to lower risk factors and raise protective factors for marital distress and associated mental health problems. Given the strong links between marital distress and mental disorders, efforts to prevent mental disorder due to marital conflict has substantial advantages over later and more costly treatment. Targeting ROs as a delivery system is important as ROs already serve as a less stigmatizing resource for prevention and counseling for many people who will not seek services from a mental health professional. This work assesses the value of preventing (vs. treating) mental disorders through maximizing functioning during a critical adulthood transition (i.e., entering marriage). This work proposes to follow an existing sample of 217 couples into a high risk period for distress and divorce (years 5-10 of marriage) in order to assess the long-term/durable preventative effects of premarital intervention on marital distress and symptoms of mental disorders. We will also test and refine our theoretical model of how targeted risk (e.g., negative interactions) and protective factors (e.g., confidence in handling conflicts) are linked over time to marital distress and mental disorder. Benefits include enhancing existing "natural" interventions in the community (premarital counseling) and of reaching a population who might not seek services through the traditional mental health system (e.g., men, minority group members).