Can Marriage Education Mitigate the Risks Associated with Premarital Cohabitation?

Publication Date

5-4-2015

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Divorce, PREP, Military, Premarital cohabitation, Relationship education, Marriage education

Abstract

This study tested whether relationship education (i.e., the Prevention and Relationship Education Program; PREP) can mitigate the risk of having cohabited before making a mutual commitment to marry (i.e., 'precommitment cohabitation') for marital distress and divorce. Using data from a study of PREP for married couples in the U.S. Army (N = 662 couples), we found that there was a significant association between precommitment cohabitation and lower marital satisfaction and dedication before random assignment to intervention. After intervention, this precommitment cohabitation effect was only apparent in the control group. Specifically, significant interactions between intervention condition and cohabitation history indicated that for the control group, but not the PREP group, precommitment cohabitation was associated with lower dedication as well as declines in marital satisfaction and increases in negative communication over time. Furthermore, those with precommitment cohabitation were more likely to divorce by the 2-year follow-up only in the control group; there were no differences in divorce based on premarital cohabitation history in the PREP group. These findings are discussed in light of current research on cohabitation and relationship education; potential implications are also considered.

Copyright Date

5-4-2015

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Rights Holder

American Psychological Association

Provenance

Received from author

Language

English (eng)

Extent

7 pgs

Publication Statement

Copyright held by the American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Publication Title

Journal of Family Psychology

Volume

29

Issue

3

First Page

500

Last Page

506

ISSN

1939-1293

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