A randomized trial of relationship education using Within Our Reach for economically vulnerable couples

Abstract

Couples relationship education is grounded in teaching couples' skills and strategies to form and sustain healthy relationships. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of a relationship education intervention on emotion regulation, individual distress, dyadic coping, and relationship adjustment utilizing a randomized control trial for economically vulnerable couples. The analysis sample included 1418 couples (2836 individuals) who were randomly assigned to receive the 12-h Within Our Reach curriculum immediately, or to a wait-list control group.We estimated multilevel growth curve models over time among outcomes between treatment and wait-list control conditions. Treatment group couples demonstrated statistically significant improvements over the 6-month study period on emotional regulation and dyadic coping when compared to their wait-list group counterparts. Although models showed improvements in individual distress and relationship adjustments, these improvements did not amount to statistically significant group differences.Implications and limitations are also noted.

Examining intervention hours attended for couples randomly assigned to receive relationship education

“…The primary aim of the current analysis was to conduct a follow‐up of the original outcome findings from Barden et al (2022) to examine the influence of intervention hours received (i.e., dose) on intervention couples. Results indicated that women who completed the 12‐h intervention reported statistically significant lower emotion regulation scores, or fewer difficulties regulating emotions, than women who did not complete the intervention at the 6‐month time point.…”

“…WOR curriculum content includes skills related to communication and conflict resolution, safety within intimate relationships, replacing communication danger signs with proactive strategies to lower stress, and skills to develop healthier relationships. WOR has been included in numerous RE studies that targeted low‐income couples with a demonstrated history of effectiveness related to various constructs surrounding couple relationship quality (Barden et al, 2022; Carlson et al, 2017; Stanley et al, 2020).…”

“…Barden at al. (2022) used an intent‐to‐treat model in the primary analysis, meaning that all couples were included in the analysis regardless of intervention compliance. Thus, it is not clear what influence overall intervention hours attended may have had on positive outcomes observed.…”

“…Individuals who can regulate emotions during challenging conversations are able to maintain healthier psychological distress and consequently, more positive relationships (Dillman . Additionally, we chose to focus on these three constructs because we found positive intervention effects at 1-month follow-up postrandom asignment for individual distress, 6-month follow-up for emotion regulation and stress communication in the primary outcome analysis (see Barden et al, 2022). used an intent-to-treat model in the primary analysis, meaning that all couples were included in the analysis regardless of intervention compliance.…”

Factor structure and dyadic measurement invariance of the English version of the dyadic coping inventory measuring low-income couples in the United States

“…Among different approaches to relationship education, one of the most widely studied programs is the Prevention and Relationship Education Program's (PREP) Within Our Reach (WOR), which targets low-income couples (Barden et al, 2022). While there are various iterations and versions of the PREP curriculum, PREP improved couples' overall stress communication in comparison to a control group (see Carlson et al, 2021 for complete study and evaluation details).…”