Date of Award

8-1-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Howard Markman, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Martha E. Wadsworth

Third Advisor

Scott M. Stanley

Fourth Advisor

Stephen Shirk

Fifth Advisor

Shelly Smith-Acuna

Keywords

Low income couples, Program evaluation, Relationship education

Abstract

The current study implemented and evaluated an adapted version of the Within Our Reach program called FRAME. Participants were 173 low-income couples in committed relationships and caring for at least one child together. Participating couples were randomly assigned to one of the four study conditions (couples group, female group, male group, or control group). The impact of the program was investigated on a range of relationship and mental health outcomes. The present findings suggest that the FRAME workshop was helpful in reducing negative communication and improving positive bonding for our sample. Couples were able to benefit in some areas when only one partner attended the workshop. Overall the FRAME project was viewed as helpful and was well received by both male and female participants from various ethnic backgrounds. Associations between key variables were also examined and the results highlighted the negative impact of economic strain on individual and relationship functioning for men and women. Implications for future relationship education programs and research with low-income and ethnically diverse populations are discussed.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Lindsey Einhorn

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

147 p.

Discipline

Clinical psychology, Adult education

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