Areas of family life education

Pre-marital preparation

Conceptual Understanding
Marriage preparation programs are offered to adolescent,

young adult, and remarrying partners to increase readiness for predictable tasks of married life and reduce their likelihood of distress and divorce.
Couples are assisted by a trained and knowledgeable

professionals to understand and apply their lifes experience thus far to a new dynamic relationship marriage.
They are further equipped with skills and tools to better

assist

them

in

the

other

areas

of

their

lives.

Cntd.
For relationship enhancement; training workshops, self-help

materials, marital therapy, and/or support services are offered to individuals, dating couples, cohabitants, and married couples to improve knowledge of relational issues,

interpersonal skills, personal insight, behaviour change

Definition
Markman and Hahlweg (1993) stated that the prevention

perspective has the goal of starting with happy couples (even though they may be at risk for future distress) and

helping them maintain their relatively high levels of

functioning

Cntd..
Premarital education is defined as a knowledge and

skills-based

training

procedure

which

aims

at

providing couples with information on ways to improve their relationship once they are married (Senediak, 1990)

Cntd..
Premarital

education programs are based in a

prevention perspective that has the goal of starting

with happy couples (even though they may be at risk for future distress) and helping them maintain their relatively high levels of functioning

Cntd..
The two major goals of premarital preparation programs is

to prevent marital distress and divorce

Programs are geared at providing couples with an awareness

and understanding of potential problems, as well as

providing couples with information and resources to

effectively prevent such problems

Cntd..
Pre-marriage education encourages the couple to think

objectively and wisely about getting married.

It also empowers them to cancel getting married if they

discover that it will be unwise.

Cntd
1)

Prevention of distress, including dating or domestic violence and conflict, and prevention of divorce by altering malleable risk factors

2) Competence-building, by enhancing self- and other-awareness, knowledge of couple issues, interactive skills, and access to resources and (3) Intervention, including individual or couple therapy as appropriate, to resolve conflict, promote healing, teach skills for growth, or to deter partners from entering a high-risk marriage.

Mechanism of premarital preparation

There are three main groups that provide most premarital

education:
(1) Clergy,

(2) Professional counsellors or therapists, and

(3) Physicians.

Cntd..
Clergy: Clergy provide the greatest amount of formal

premarital education, as part of optional or mandatory marriage preparation programs before church weddings
Professional counsellors or therapists do some premarital

education, often for those who have been divorced and are preparing to marry again
Physicians: They do some premarital education as well, but

that is usually limited to one meeting where they give contraceptive and sexual information

 Informal Stage: This is the time when children best learn

The Stages of Pre-Marriage Preparation

from the modeling of parental attitudes and behaviors and from their own experimentation 1) The parental modeling stage (from birth to preteens) or the formation years 2) The personal exploration stage (teens to young adulthood) or the experimental years.
The Formal Stage: This is the time when structured, formal

training and education of lifes issues and marriage itself take place.

 Topics including: communication, conflict resolution,

roles in marriage, commitment, financial management, sexuality, parenting expectations, and partners

families of origin

Topics to be covered in pre-marital preparation Roles in marriage.

Sexuality. Finances. In-laws.

Health and family planning

Values and goals. Communication. Creative problem solving. Love and feelings. Issues of power and control. Starting a home. The wedding. After the wedding.