Adventures in marriage: A skills-based marriage education program with military couples

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to introduce and provide results of an initial evaluation of a skills-based marriage education program, Adventures in Marriage (AIM), designed to increase marital satisfaction and reduce divorce intent. Military couples face additional stressors associated with the responsibilities and cultural expectations of military service. Based on the unique needs of military couples, marriage education is considered a more accessible resource that has less stigma than more intensive interventions such as couples therapy. Therefore, the AIM program was conducted with married military couples to improve marital satisfaction and reduce the likelihood of divorce among participants. This article provides an overview of the AIM program, including an introduction to the curriculum, participant goals and objectives, and program structure. The study sample included 995 participants in which one of the spouses was active-duty military. This pilot study evaluated the underlying factor structure of a scale created specifically to measure intended program outcomes at program completion and follow-up. Results of the repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated a statistically significant difference in program outcome scores over time for both men and women. Scores for all participants were significantly higher from retrospective pre- to post-test and follow-up. Participant scores declined from post-test to follow-up but remained significantly higher than pre-test at follow-up. The results demonstrated significant improvement toward program outcomes and provide promising initial evidence for the intended program effectiveness of AIM. AIM is a promising marriage education program that will be of use to marriage education practitioners who work with military couples.