Relationship Education with Both Married and Unmarried Stepcouples: An Exploratory Study

This study highlights the experience of 356 adults who attended a 12-hour stepfamily relationship education course. Referred to as “stepcouples,” these adult participants were either remarried, cohabitating, or seriously dating someone who had children from a previous relationship. Self-report measures of relationship quality were gathered before the course began, at the end of the 6-week course, and 1 month later. Results from repeated measures analysis of variance suggest that stepcouples, regardless of their race or marital status, report that they benefit from stepfamily relationship education. For both white and Latino participants, reports of commitment increased and agreement on finances, ex-partners, and parenting all improved over time. Responses from semistructured interviews are included to illustrate participants’ perspectives. The similarity in outcomes, as well as the qualitative responses, point to research and practice implications regarding whether stepfamily education should be, or needs to be, different for married and unmarried stepcouples.

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