Citation

Gardner SP, Boellaard R. Fam. Relat. 2007; 56(5): 490-500.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, National Council on Family Relations (USA), Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-3729.2007.00476.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Connections: Relationships and Marriage (Connections) is a high school marriage education curriculum designed to teach students how to develop healthy relationships and marriages. This study evaluated the effectiveness of this curriculum over 4-years postintervention with a matched set of 72 high school students who were in either the Connections group or a control group. Findings suggest that although most of the immediate impacts of the curriculum fade within 4 years after the curriculum, the Connections group shows an increase in self-esteem, a decrease in dating and relationship violence, and an increase in family cohesion over 4 years. Implications for further development of such curricula are discussed as well as implications for practitioners.