Couple Checkup and Date Nights - Prepare-Enrich

Overall, the Take the Checkup/Date Nights @ Chick-fil-A were judged
by the organizers and couples participating to be very successful. The
outreach engaged a unique combination of local businesses and churches
to create awareness and opportunities for couples to strengthen their
marriages. In reviewing the results, several themes stand out.
1) Significant Improvements in Marriage
The amount of significant improvement reported by couples at
the follow-up was impressive and promising. Two of the date nights
intentionally focused on communication and conflict resolution. The
Couple Checkup Discussion Guide, used by over half the couples, also
introduced exercises designed to teach foundational skills in these
areas. Three-fourths of the couples rated their ability to communicate
and resolve conflict as significantly improved 8 weeks after the
campaign. They also improved in several other areas, as well as
overall marriage satisfaction. These improvements suggest that
couples who are given the opportunity to take an assessment, discuss
their results, and begin working on fundamental relationship skills, will
rapidly improve their relationship.
It is also notable that couples accomplished this enrichment largely
on their own. Only a fraction of the couples reported meeting
with mentors, a pastor, or counselor. Most of the couples took the
online inventory, discussed their results, and attended the date
nights on their own. These self-directed improvements are consistent
with other recent studies that have shown couples who take an online
assessment and complete a self-guided feedback process can make
significant gains in their relationship.
Summary
2) Reaching Distressed Couples
Despite the fact that many churches were involved and the
participants had very high scores on the Spiritual Beliefs portion of
their Couple Checkup, almost half of the marriages were in the
distressed range. Forty-five percent of the 1201 married couples
assessed by the Couple Checkup were either Conflicted or
Devitalized. It was somewhat surprising to find such a high rate of
marital distress in the non-clinical population reached through this
community-based campaign. However, with Palm Beach county
divorce rates approaching 60%, perhaps these results should
not be so surprising and are actually quite representative of the state
of marital health in the general population.
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