Pathways-to-Outcomes Snapshots: Tools for Building Evidence for Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) Programs

These snapshots are intended for practitioners and researchers involved in designing, improving, or evaluating HMRE programs. They present three HMRE Pathways-to-Outcomes models that visually represent hypothesized links between program activities and intended outcomes. Each model reflects an aspect of program design and implementation: (1) curriculum and delivery, (2) maximizing participation, and (3) addressing couple and individual characteristics.

Accompanying each model is a recommendation table that provides research questions that could be addressed in future evaluations to build the evidence base. These questions are informed by the program activities included in the pathways-to-outcomes models. Answering these questions may help determine how best to implement the program activities and whether they can be considered effective or evidence-based. The purpose of the models and recommendations is to advance the field of HMRE programming by suggesting future directions for research.

The Mathematica team generated the models described in the brief from HMRE federal evaluation reports, peer-reviewed literature, and input from HMRE researchers and practitioners. To develop the recommendations table that accompanies each model, we transformed key activities from the models into a condensed list of specific strategies for grantees to consider adopting. For each strategy, we developed multiple targeted research questions that could be addressed in future evaluations.