The authors describe an exploratory investigation of a relationship education program based on the Five Love Languages (5 LL) (Chapman, 2007), implemented by Extension educators in seven rural counties. Relationship assessments measured participant changes related to the quality of the primary relationship, belief in the future of the relationship, and partner empathy. Confidence in using the 5 LLs was also assessed. Two groups were compared, a “no booster” group that participated in didactic and final sessions and a “booster” group that received a book, tips, and reminders to practice the 5 LLs. Focus groups revealed how participants benefited. The results showed significant gains in knowledge of and confidence in using the 5 LLs. All participants significantly improved on partner empathy and the “booster” group showed significantly more improvement than the “no booster” group. The value to the family life education mission of Cooperative Extension is discussed, and recommendations for future research are given.

Extension educators provide resources to community coalitions. The study reported here adds to what is known about community coalitions and applies an assessment framework to a state-level coalition-based Extension program on healthy relationships and marriages. The study combines the Internal Coalition Outcome Hierarchy (ICOH) framework with four coalition capacity categories: general, internal, external, and prevention. The findings from two focus groups, one with formation coalition leaders and one with midlevel coalition leaders, are presented. Recommendations are made for designing educational, service, and evaluation interventions to meet the needs of community coalitions at specific developmental stages.