Improving Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) Programs for Unmarried Couples with Children
Evidence | Publications

Improving Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) Programs for Unmarried Couples with Children

FRAMING Research Project Brief
Published: Aug 06, 2020
Publisher: Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Human Services Family Support Strengthening Families and Responsible Fatherhood Federal
Download
Full Publication
Associated Project

Fatherhood, Relationships, and Marriage – Illuminating the Next Generation of Research (FRAMING Research)

Time frame: 2018-2023

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families

Key Findings
  • Research suggests that unmarried parents tend to have more fragile, less committed romantic relationships than married parents do. They also tend to be more economically disadvantaged than married parents. These factors could directly and indirectly contribute to the limited impacts of healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs for unmarried parents.
  • Like HMRE programs for married parents, HMRE programs for unmarried parents aim to strengthen the couple relationship. Because unmarried parents are much more likely than married parents to break up, another goal of HMRE programs for unmarried parents could be to provide supports to promote children’s well-being regardless of what happens to the couple’s relationship.
  • Four potential enhancements for HMRE programs to consider to better meet the distinct needs of unmarried parents include: (1) adapting relationship skills content to the needs of unmarried parents; (2) integrating more content on cooperative co-parenting; (3) offering enhanced job and career advancement services to help unmarried parents address economic challenges; and (4) offering more intensive case management to address their other needs.

Healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs for couples with children aim to strengthen couples’ relationships and ultimately improve the well-being of participants’ children. Although these programs have shown some success in improving outcomes for married couples, their success with unmarried couples has been limited.

In this brief, the Fatherhood, Relationships, and Marriage, Illuminating the Next Generation of Research (FRAMING Research) study team examines potential reasons why HMRE programs have been less successful with unmarried parents compared to married parents. They also present strategies for ways HMRE programs could be strengthened to better serve unmarried couples with children. They present their recommendations in three steps. First, they examine the distinctive characteristics of unmarried parents who participate in HMRE programs. Second, they discuss what the goals of HMRE programming could be for unmarried parents based on their characteristics and needs. Third, they propose enhancements to HMRE programs to better address the characteristics and needs of unmarried parents.

This work is part of the FRAMING Research project, which is sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to systematically review healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood programs (HMRF). ACF partnered with Mathematica and Public Strategies to conduct the project to examine existing and ongoing research on HMRF programs and related fields, pinpoint key learning gaps, and identify the best ways to fill those gaps.

How do you apply evidence?

Take our quick four-question survey to help us curate evidence and insights that serve you.

Take our survey