Marriage Alive Seminar Study
Marital enrichment programs have been growing in popularity since their inception in the 1960’s. Enrichment programs target couples who would like to give their relationship a boost. They generally do not claim to be able to treat a couple on the brink of divorce, in which case marital therapy by a licensed clinician would be most appropriate.
Several of such programs have been developed by marital researchers in the field of psychology (e.g., Relationship Enhancement was pioneered by Bernard Guerney, Jr., Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University). However, in addition to the university-based programs, there are currently scores of non-empirically developed seminars offered in communities, particularly in spiritual communities, throughout the United States. One such seminar is Marriage Alive.
Marriage Alive was developed by Claudia Arp and David Arp, MSW. The Arps are a charismatic married couple, who travel around the country and abroad to personally conduct each seminar – together. Up until recently, the only evidence they received indicating that Marriage Alive is an effective intervention had been purely anecdotal.
The Marriage Alive Seminar Study was begun to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of this program for those couples who attend. Pre-seminar, post-seminar, and follow-up measures have been gathered on all willing participants in 10 different cities across the country. The questionnaires administered provide data on marital satisfaction, commitment, constructive communication, social support, expectations, and many other constructs across time. Preliminary data suggest that the program is effective in increasing levels of constructive communication by the 2month follow-up. Data collection will be completed by March 2006.