Transcript Ready , Set, Go - Smart Marriages

Marriage and Family Therapists:
What Is In It for You?
An Overview of the Field of Marriage Education
by
Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D.
Patty Howell, Ed.M., A.G.C.
Dennis Stoica, MBA
Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D.
Patty Howell, Ed.M., A.G.C.
Jason Krafsky
Kerri Strong
Ralph Jones
2
The Origins of Marriage Education
- Marriage Education Movement
- Diane Sollee, MFT, AAMFT, 1989
- Country’s rampant divorce rate
- Social breakdown
- More skilled therapists
- No difference in 50% divorce rate
3
Convergence
Handful of colleagues
determined to find
ways of saving
relationships
Investigating the
determinants of
marital outcomes
4
Marriage Savers
• Newspaper Man
• Modesto, CA
• Community Marriage
Policy
• 50% reduction of
divorce rate
• 20 years
• 200 + communities
5
Crisis Creates Opportunity - Sollee
-Marriage Education:
Couples learn and practice skills that
foster marital success.
-Sollee
(1) The Coalition for Marriage,
Family, and Couples Education
(CMFCE).
(2) Smart Marriages®
Comprehensive Marriage Education
clearinghouse
(3) Annual Conference: Best and
Brightest in Marriage Education
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Divorce Rate Correlates - Couples
• Decreased Mental And Physical
Health
• Shorter Life
• Lower Income
• Increased Risk Of Poverty
• Lower Productivity At Work
• Increased Domestic Violence
• More Crime And Violent Crime
• Higher Rates Of Suicide
• Damaged Relationships With
Their Children
7
Divorce Rate Correlates - Children
• Children who live with
their own two married
parents
• Physical health
• Higher rates of graduating
from college
• Achieve higher status jobs
• Less divorce in own life
• Less truancy
• Less antisocial behavior
• Delay becoming sexually
active
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Cost of Divorce
-The personal cost of
divorce:
●Emotional
● Financial
● Family turmoil
-The break-up rate for
cohabitating couples is
even greater.
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Public Cost of Divorce
-County, state, federal and
taxpayer costs
-The overall social services cost
estimated at $30,000 per
divorce
-With California's divorces
150,000 annually
-Total: $4.5 billion each year
from government funds
-Money goes to divorce clean-up
and “adjustment”, not divorce
prevention
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Seeking Cultural Change
-Create full public
awareness
-Marriage is skills-based
-Skills can be learned
-Acquiring skills part of
everyone’s life
-Enormous Challenge
-Time for action
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Healthy Marriage Initiative
-Administration for Children and
Families
-Dr. Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary
for Children and Families states:
“Our emphasis is on healthy Marriage – not
marriage for the sake of marriage at any cost –
but healthy marriages that provide a strong and
stable environment for raising children. It is
about helping couples who choose marriage for
themselves gain access to the skills and
knowledge necessary to form and sustain healthy
marriages.”
12
Federal Funding
Healthy Marriage Demonstration
Grants, 2006
-$150 Million each year over the next
five years for Healthy Marriages
and Promoting Responsible
Fatherhood grants
-Funding 224 of the most promising
projects
-A cautious first step to assess the
potential value of Marriage
Education to strengthen marriages
and families
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Complex Divorce Problem
•
•
•
•
No-Fault divorce
Belief systems: Lucky in Love, Soul Mates
Commitment phobic
Over valuing marriage
• Better to have a child out of wedlock than get
divorced
• Under value marriage
• The first marriage is just practice
• Most couples do not know how to create and
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sustain a strong and successful marriage
30 Years of Research
John Gottman’s Research
“Love Lab”
University of Washington
• Gottman’s
• Six predictors of marital
success
• Ability to predict divorce
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3 Streams of Marriage Education
1. Teaching relationship skills to couples
2. Raising cultural awareness about the benefits of
a healthy marriage for couples, their children
and for society
3. Making realistic
expectations for
marriage
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Research Supporting Marriage Education
-A meta-analysis of 20 different marriage programs
- 85 studies involving 3,886 couples
- Demonstrate program effectiveness
-The average couple participating
improved their behavior and
relationship
-They were better off than more than
2/3 of the couples that didn’t
participate in any program
*Giblin, Enrichment Outcome Research: A Meta-Analysis of
Premarital, Marital and Family Interventions, 1985
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More Research
• A meta-analysis of 16 studies:
• Communication skills
marital satisfaction
other relationship qualities:
• After training,
83% outperform
couples without training
*Butler & Wampler, A Meta-Analysis on Research
on the Couple Communication Program , 1999
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Even More Research –
Longitudinal Study ME
• High relationship satisfaction
• Sexual satisfaction
• Lower problem intensity
Three years after training:
• Greater communication skills
• Less negative communication
patterns
12 years after training:
• Greater conflict-management skills
• Fewer instances of physical violence
3-5 years after training.
*Markman et.al, Prevention of Marital Distress:
A Longitudinal Investigation: (1988)
Preventing Marital Distress Through
Communication and Conflict Management
Training (1993)
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The Research Continues
• A meta-analysis of over 100
studies on the impact of
Marriage Education,
• Researchers found evidence
• reduced strife
• improved communication,
• increased parenting skills,
• increased stability,
• enhanced marital happiness.
* Fagan, Patterson, & Rector, Marriage & Welfare Reform: The Overwhelming
Evidence that Marriage Education Works, 2002
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Consciousness-Raising Campaigns
1. The “10,000 signs
project”
2. Ultramercials
Create: 40,000
inquiries
3. Public Service
Announcements
4. Events
5. Newspaper columns
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Many Different Types of Marriage
Education Programs
• University Extension
Programs
• Out of the Box
Programs
• Train the Trainer
Programs
• Various ethnic groups
• Different Life Stages
• Different Relationship
problems
• Different venues
• Secular or Faith-based
• Qualifications for
leadership
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Program Selection
•
•
•
•
•
•
Researched
Award-winning
Reputation of author
Experience of author
Flexibility & Creativity
Participant driven model
• Cost
• Training
• Materials
• Links to comprehensive
services
• Support Services
Available
• Language consideration
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High School
• Youth Relationship
Education Programs
• High School Health &
Psychology classes
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Partner Selection Programs
• Smart Dating Skills
• Great Choices
• Being a Great
Partner
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Engaged Couples
• 20% decide not
to marry
• Need time
before
announcements
• Inventory
• Learn skills
readily
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Marriage Enhancement &
Marriage Skills Training
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•
•
•
Communication Skills
Conflict Resolution Skills
Relationship Maintenance
Problem Solving Skills
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New Families Programs
• Deal with Transition
from Couple to Family
• Communication Skills
• Stress of New Family
• Father Involvement
• Child Development
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Un-married low income
pregnant couples
• Stability Issues
• Finances
• Communication &
Conflict Resolution
Skills
• Parenting
• Father Involvement
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Mentoring
• Modeling positive
relationships
• Sharing knowledge &
Experience
• Networking
• Community Marriage
Policy
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Stepparent Programs
• Highest Incidence of
Divorce
• Unique Problems
• Programs for Kids
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Divorce Reduction Programs
• 60% only one
person wants
divorce
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Usefulness of
Relationship Skills Training
-Diane Sollee observes,
“…the skills taught are applicable to
all persons,
whether single, married,
cohabitating, gay/lesbian, and
regardless of religious or ethnic
backgrounds”
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Approved ME Curriculum
Hours
per
Course
Leader
Materials
Cost
Participant Materials
Cost
Cost per
Service Hour
(Participant
materials only)
$10/ couple workbook
$0.50
$0.70
Cost per Service
Hour (Including
leaders kits*)
10
$40/ leader
kit
Bringing Baby Home
15
$250
instructor kit
$150 optional
video series
$50 video
"What is Baby
Saying?"
$30/ couple
$1.00
$1.83 instructor kit
only
$2.50 with kit and
videos
Connections: "Dating and
Emotions"
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$225/ leader
kit
$6.50/ student
workbook
$0.38
$1.04
Connections: "Relationships
and Marriage"
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$225/ leader
kit
$6.50/ student
workbook
$0.36
$0.99
8
$50/ leader
kit
$20/ couple mail-in
scoring
$1.25
$1.56
10
$265/ leader
kit
handout reproduction
costs only
negligible
$1.33
10 Great Dates
FOCCUS Inventory
Love U2: "Baby Smarts"
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Our Vision
Imagine: “Impact of Communities
saturated with ME programs
for 15 Years.”
Educate the couple
You change the family
You change the village
IMAGINE: The ripple effect
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Phase II – The Challenge
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•
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•
Penetrate the culture
Few people know what ME is
Most couples never take a ME class
Things to learn:
The best methods for reinforcing skills
How to integrate these skills into daily lives
How many Marriage Education classes the average
person needs to take for their “Relationship IQ” to
reach sufficiency
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Phase II – The Challenge
• Few charitable foundations support “Healthy
Marriage” or ME as endeavors
• Our media - model poor relationships
• Our schools do not include relationship
curricula
• Most medical professionals do not talk with
their patients about the correlation between
overall health and relationship health
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Phase II – The Challenge
• Graduate MFT
programs do not
require a couples
therapy or ME training
• A Bipartisan
Government Effort
• Use of State and
Federal funds for
prevention
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Phase II – The Challenge
“Meanwhile, our fellow human beings
blithely continue to fall in love, get
married or not, have kids and skid into a
high probability of divorce/relationship
breakup, and experience numerous
damaging consequences in their own
lives, in the lives of their children and for
our overall society.”
Patty Howell
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To-Do List –
We still have a long way to go!
Penetrate public consciousness
Increase awareness of the benefits
of Healthy Marriages
Make Marriage Education a
normal and expected part of the
culture
Help couples become wellinformed “masters of marriage”
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Our Dream for Professionals
-We do not have to wait for couples to walk
into our office, their faces filled with pain,
at the 11th hour of their marriage
-Prevention
-We can equip people with the skills for marital
success
-We can make generational changes
-The 21st century can be the time when we
started to figure out how to succeed at
marital relationships
-Attitude – Grow Good Corn
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MFTs—A Vital Part
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•
•
•
•
•
Training
Knowledge
Experience
Connections
Status
Leaders
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Benefits for MFT’s
• Increased need for
services
• Couples asking for
help sooner
• MFTs – Instrument of
cultural change
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MFT Involvement
-Phase I:
One MFT joined by others
-Phase II: NOW requires a deeper level of involvement
Create Cultural Change
More than ME classes
-Macro level vs. Micro Level
THINK BIG
THINK CREATIVELY
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Avenues for MFT Involvement
*Therapy: Become a
marriage-friendly therapist
Utilize relationship skills
*Combine ME with therapy
*Teach ME classes
*Help us prepare for the
coming demand for classes
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Join Your Professional Association
• Become an advocate for
marriage & Marriage
Education
• Join your local, state and
federal organizations
• Help these groups become
marriage advocates
• Become part of a
community outreach
program
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Avenues for MFT Involvement
*FOUND/ LEAD Healthy Marriage
Coalitions
* BECOME a board member
*EDUCATE the public about:
Benefits of Healthy Marriages
The correlation between ME
and marital success
*WRITE articles
*HELP the media produce
substantial articles built on solid data
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Avenues for MFT Involvement
*Infuse other
professionals with
passion for marriage
*Conduct research on
ME programs
*Write grant applications
*Assist in acquiring
donations
*Make a donation to your
local coalition
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Avenues for MFT Involvement
*The 1% Solution/ State & Local
*Train and supervise Mentor Couples
*Consult with Healthy Marriage Coalitions
on Domestic Violence
*Refer couples to quality classes, books
and resources on marital success
*Utilize your Healthy Marriage Coalition’s
website
*Develop specialized ME curricula and
resource materials that build upon and
expand existing programs
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Avenues for Involvement
Become a Healthy Marriage
advocate in your practice in
your community
Government Officials
Business Leaders
Media
Tell them of the need for
Low-cost, quality resources that
help couples integrate relationship
skills into their everyday lives.
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Avenues for Involvement
*Join the Smart Marriages listserv
(www.smartmarriages.com).
*Attend the Smart Marriages Conference annually
*Walk the talk in your own relationship
--increase your professional credibility
--experience all the pleasures and benefits
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Get in the Boat
• Social change is sorely needed;
Broken relationships, broken families
Then pick up the pieces of their lives
• There is space for everyone
We are rowing a very large boat
We need everyone
Take an oar
Contribute at your highest level
• Everyone has a gift/part of solution
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What is your place in this movement?
-Invest in creating social change
-APPLY
your knowledge
your skills
your vision
your passion
your dedication
-Together we can make a
DIFFERENCE
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It’s For the Children
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