Daniel S. Hubler

The Effectiveness of Relationship Education in the College Classroom

The effectiveness of relationship education (RE) has been a topic of great interest over the last decade, as has the focus on emerging adulthood as an important developmental stage. However, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of RE with emerging adults who may be single or early in dating relationships, instead focusing primarily on engaged couples or married couples. This study investigated the effectiveness of RE with emerging adults in a college course on relationship dynamics. Using the Within My Reach curriculum, the authors found significant positive increases in attitudes, knowledge, communication skills, and relationship characteristics. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.

What Are Couples Saying About Relationship Education? A Content Analysis

Concerns regarding the impact of relationship distress and divorce have prompted various federal, state, and local initiatives to offer couple relationship education (CRE) programs to help couples build and maintain healthy relationships. Recent reports have shown CRE to have several positive effects. Still, challenges pertaining to recruitment and retention have limited the reach and potential impact of CRE services. Also, in comparison to other family programs such as parent education, little is known about public perceptions of CRE. To better understand perceptions of CRE services and gain ideas for recruitment strategy, this study applied content analysis methodology to 99 couple discussions on the pros and cons of attending relationship education. Ideas for CRE programmers are discussed in light of study findings.

The Intergenerational Transmission of Financial Stress and Relationship Outcomes

Numerous studies have focused on the intergenerational transmission of poverty, financial stress, and family functioning. Other research has shown how financial stressors can predict various family processes, including parent–child interactions, family conflict, and couple communication, and relationship outcomes, including marital stability and satisfaction. This study shows continued evidence that financial stress from the male and female partners family of origin may predict marital dissatisfaction using dyadic data techniques. Also, an exploration of indirect paths also found that the presence of current financial stress partially mediates these associations.

My Partner’s Media Use: A Qualitative Study Exploring Perceptions of Problems with a Partner’s Media Use

ABSTRACT Media and technology use is widespread in American households, yet little is known about how it impacts romantic couples. The present study is an description of how romantic relationships were impacted by respondents’ perceptions of their partners’ media use. A sample of 98 respondents were asked to describe their frustration with their romantic partners’ media use. From the descriptions, four themes and five subthemes were identified, and these included the following conclusive themes that described an element of frustration: relationship impacts, appropriate media use, amount of media use, and distraction from the moment. Subthemes included media types, context of media use, value of media use, addiction, and virtual reality. Results showed mainly negative descriptions of media use with mentions of a few positive uses. The findings implicate further research on frustration over romantic partner’s media use.

The Development and Validation of the Couple and Relationship Education Attitudes Index: Results from Two Studies

ABSTRACT As relationship educators work to reach more participants for their programs, they often face challenges with recruitment and retention. The theory of planned behavior, along with research, posits that attitudes are often predictive of behavior, and that attitudes toward education and help-seeking can be varied by unique contexts. This paper reports on the development and validation of an index that measures attitudes toward couple relationship education (CRE). The two scales within this index (benefits of CRE & CRE is not a good fit) assess how comfortable individuals are with CRE. The results from two studies support the validation of the index and show how CRE attitudes are linked to relational factors and a measure of intentions to attend CRE, using the scales within the index. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Undergraduate Competencies in Family Science: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of the study was to explore the ratings of core competencies for undergraduate students in Family Science. Identifying the competencies which are viewed as most important is necessary to effectively prepare undergraduate students for professions or other . A sample of 113 Family Science professionals was asked to rate the importance of undergraduate students possessing 18 differing core competencies related to Family Science. A rank order of importance was identified. Variations were also identified by gender and type of institution (i.e., teaching focused university or research focused university). Implications for curriculum, teaching pedagogies, assessment, and future research are discussed.

“We thought it would be easy”: recruitment challenges, successes and best practices for low-income couple populations

Abstract Recruitment challenges present ongoing struggles for social science professionals. Especially problematic are recruiting endeavors when target populations are highly stressed, highly mobile, and are comprised of couples rather than individuals. Included in this study is a rationale supporting the need to study recruitment challenges coupled with a literature review discussing recent recruitment research summaries. Based upon a Delphi-type discussion with couples relationship education (CRE) experts, our team constructed a qualitative study to examine recruitment challenges in low-income CRE programs. Fourteen interviews were conducted with “successful” program leaders identified by federal regional managers within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Data were analyzed, and results detailing four main “challenge” themes, four “success” themes, and a seven-step best practice model are presented.