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Policy Framework
The Supporting Healthy Marriage project is the first large-scale, multisite, multiyear, rigorous test of marriage education programs for low-income married couples. Supported by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the project is motivated by research that indicates that married adults and children raised by their married parents do better on a host of outcomes. Low-income couples face greater challenges to building and maintaining healthy marriages, however, and their families are consequently less likely to receive the benefits of healthy marriages. While an extensive body of research on strengthening marriages exists, this research consists primarily of small-scale studies of typically short-term programs for middle-class couples.
Supporting Healthy Marriage is part of a larger HHS research agenda to study the effectiveness of efforts to sustain healthy marriages. Other research projects include the Building Strong Families evaluation of programs targeted to low-income unwed couples beginning around the time of their child’s birth, and the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative Evaluation, which is evaluating community saturation approaches for strengthening healthy marriage.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
Supporting Healthy Marriage is led by MDRC in collaboration with Abt Associates, Child Trends, Optimal Solutions Group, and Public Strategies Inc., along with leading experts on marriage, marital education programs, and services for low-income families. The project is designed to inform program operators and policymakers of the most effective ways to help couples strengthen and maintain healthy marriages. In particular, the project will measure the effectiveness of programs that provide instruction and support to improve relationship skills. Programs also include links to services that may help low-income couples address barriers to healthy marriage, such as problems with employment, health, or housing insecurity. In addition, they include extended marriage education activities that reinforce the relationship skills taught in the program. All programs provide for safe disclosure of domestic violence and access to the appropriate services in the community for families in which domestic violence is disclosed.
Supporting Healthy Marriage is a nine-year project. Its primary goal is to provide reliable information about the implementation and impacts of marriage education programs for low-income couples through a rigorous research design. To accomplish this, the project will evaluate marriage education models that were modified to meet the needs of a diverse and economically disadvantaged population. Each site will serve large numbers of participants, providing greater statistical power and the ability to examine the effects of these programs for different types of families. Another important goal of the project is to build a firm knowledge base for practitioners about how these programs can be effectively implemented at a relatively large scale.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
The Supporting Healthy Marriage project has several stages. In the study design and program development stage, research team members and consultants, in conjunction with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), decided upon the type of intervention that will be tested and the specific target groups for the project. The goal was to place priority on program models that will help build knowledge about what works for low-income couples and that local program operators express an interest in implementing at a large scale.
In the current phase of work, the SHM research team is providing technical assistance to eight Supporting Healthy Marriage evaluation sites. These sites have completed the pilot phase and were selected by ACF to move into the full-scale evaluation phase of the demonstration. This technical assistance includes working with program managers to train staff, providing Web-based guidance on program implementation, and developing management information systems to help track services. The lead agencies of the eight Supporting Healthy Marriage sites are:
- University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida
- Catholic Charities, Wichita, Kansas
- University Behavioral Associates, Bronx, New York
- Public Strategies, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Community Prevention Partnership, Reading, Pennsylvania
- Health and Human Services Commission, Austin, Texas
- Becoming Parents Program, Seattle, Washington
- Center for Human Services, Shoreline, Washington
Supporting Healthy Marriage sites are currently randomly assigning interested couples to program and control groups. Throughout this phase of the project, the research team will collect data on both the implementation and the impacts of the program, analyze the data, and write reports and other publications presenting the findings from the evaluation. The major data sources for the research will include data on families’ characteristics when they enter the study, follow-up surveys and direct assessment of outcomes for couples and their children, program records documenting couples’ participation in program activities, observation of program activities, and interviews with program staff.
What's Next
The research team is currently working with eight Supporting Healthy Marriage sites. The initial implementation report is expected in 2009. For more information about the project, visit the Supporting Healthy Marriage Web site and read our Program Guidelines and working papers.
For More Information
For more information about this study, please contact Virginia Knox at MDRC (virginia.knox@mdrc.org; 212-340-8678).
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