CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Illinois residents who took part in a new couples’ relationship strengthening program reported many improvements in their connections with their spouses or partners and in their individual well-being too, research suggests.
The program, the Illinois Strong Couples project, focuses on topics such as communication, conflict management and friendship to help couples strengthen their bonds. Many of the 340 participants in the program reported decreased conflict with their spouses or partners, greater satisfaction with their relationship and more confidence that their union would last, said the study’s principal investigator Allen W. Barton, a professor of human development and family studies and an Extension specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
“Participants reported decreases in damaging conflict and in conflict about co-parenting,” Barton said. “They also felt they had better partner support, that their partner was there for them and able to support them through whatever they were going through.”
Further, many individuals also experienced broader benefits over the six-month study such as improved mental health, better sleep and decreased problematic alcohol use, even though the program did not address any of these issues, Barton said.
“When you strengthen something that's so central to individuals’ lives, as marriage and romantic relationships are, it enhances other areas of their lives as well,” Barton said.
The current study reported on the first phase of this ongoing project. Since these data were collected in 2021-23, Barton has been expanding the program to Extension systems in other states, training their educators as coaches to work with participating couples via videoconferencing.
Barton co-wrote the study, published in Family Relations, with U. of I. graduate students Noah Larsen and Qiujie Gong. The proof-of-concept study explored whether relationship education programming could be provided effectively on a broader scale than earlier similar initiatives by embedding the program within the Illinois Extension system.
The project’s hybrid format includes online programming with remote coaching. Participants engage in six self-paced online sessions of about 45-60 minutes each that address skills that promote healthy romantic relationships, and they watch videos of example couples and answer discussion questions. Couples are encouraged to view the online sessions together.
Five times during the program the couples meet by videoconference with a trained coach — either an Illinois Extension educator or a clinical or community psychology graduate student at the university. The coaches are not therapists or counselors; instead, they lead calls that reinforce the program content, provide opportunities for partners to practice the skills they learn and encourage the couple’s efforts to strengthen their relationship, Barton said.
Homework assignments were emailed to participants in the study after completing each online session, and they responded to three surveys that examined the program’s effects on various aspects of their relationship and personal lives.
“We had a wide range of couples participate, from those in their 20s that were dating and trying to discern their potential for a long-term future together to couples that were in their 60s, had been married 40 years, and said they wished they had this program when they first got married,” Barton said.
About 66% of the couples were married, while 34% were dating or living together, 9% were engaged and 1% were married but living separately. Six couples were in same-sex relationships. The average number of children among participants was two. Most (81%) of those in the sample were white, 9% were Black, and 5% were Asian. Another 5% identified as “other,” the study data showed.
The project utilizes ePREP, the online version of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program that prior randomized trials have shown is effective at helping people significantly improve various dimensions of their relationships and their well-being as individuals, Barton said.
The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, spends about $150 million a year on research and evaluation initiatives that promote family well-being, responsible parenthood and families’ economic stability through the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood program, according to the study.
While both family studies researchers and critics generally agree on the societal benefits of strengthening couples’ and families’ bonds, skeptics of the federally funded initiatives question the theoretical framework and whether the varying effect sizes in the research data are indicative of significant, lasting change, Barton said.
Most of the ACF-funded initiatives involve in-person, group-based programs, which can conflict with couples’ work and parenting obligations. By delivering the program online so that participants could engage in it from their homes at times convenient for them and providing remote coaches to help and support them, Barton said the Illinois Strong Couples project overcame many of these limitations. Another potential barrier was eliminated by providing it for free.
“This is the first time that this type of program has been disseminated at this scale and through an Extension system, eliminating the need for a large federal grant that typically only supports a program for the duration of the grant,” Barton said.
Leveraging the strengths of the Extension system for the project helps ensure financial sustainability, he said.
“The program is available to anyone in the U.S.” Barton said. “They can enroll on the project website, and they'll get a coach either from their own state if its Extension system is participating or from a trained coach in another state.
“There is a lot of research that indicates if you can have strong, stable marriages and romantic relationships, it makes a difference for adults, children, workplaces, communities and the overall economy of a state,” Barton said. “We want to make that possible with some great research and programming for couples throughout Illinois and beyond.”