Starting a Local Marriage Enrichment Group

Abstract

Wallace Denton. MD, is Rofcssa of Funily Therq~y in thc Dcpvvncnt of Child Rvclapncnt md Family Studies. Purdvc Univcnily. West IAaycnc. IN 47907. O 1986 by Tht Hawonh R s s . Inc. All rights mxrvcd. 69 Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 17:42 16 March 2015

Preventive interventions for couples.

“…Psychoeducational programs for dating, married, and remarrying couples have become more available and more widely reported and evaluated in the last two decades. Public awareness of the need for preparation and enrichment (e.g., Denton, 1986;Glieck, 1995;McManus, 1993) and couple participation in church and community-based programs is strong and may be growing (Center for Marriage and Family, 1995; Jones & Stahmann, 1994;McManus, 1993).…”

“…characterized by programmatic, replicable, economical methods" (p. 1127). Traditionally, programs were distinguished by relationship stage, for example, premarital counseling (Schumm & Denton, 1979;Stahmann & Hiebert, 1987) or marriage enrichment (Denton, 1986;Mace, 1983). More recently, relationship enhancement models (Guerney & Maxson, 1990;Stanley, Markman, St. Peters, & Leber, 1995) offer social skills training without stage segregation.…”

“…Postmarriage enrichment efforts emerged with Marriage Guidance Centers, founded by David and Vera Mace in the 1950s, and the Marriage Encounter movement, initiated by Father Gabriel Calvo in 1960 (Denton, 1986). Mace and Mace (1976) emphasized support and strengthening of healthy marriages, in contrast to the prevailing problem orientation of marital therapy, hence such enrichment efforts are entirely consistent with the aims of prevention.…”