The Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation

NCT ID: NCT02112058

Last Updated: 2014-04-11

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 6298 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2007-02-28
• Study Completion Date: 2012-07-31

Brief Summary

The Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation was launched in 2003 to test the effectiveness of a skills-based relationship education program designed to help low- and modest-income married couples strengthen their relationships and to support more stable and more nurturing home environments and more positive outcomes for parents and their children. The evaluation was led by MDRC with Abt Associates and other partners, and it was sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SHM was a voluntary, year long, marriage education program for lower-income, married couples who had children or were expecting a child. The program provided group workshops based on structured curricula; supplemental activities to build on workshop themes; and family support services to address participation barriers, connect families with other services, and reinforce curricular themes. The study's random assignment design compared outcomes for families who were offered SHM's services with outcomes for a similar group of families who were not but could access other services in the community.

Conditions

Marital Relationships; Family Relations; Low-Income Population; Child Behavior; Adolescent Behavior

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Program

A series of relationship and marriage education workshops for groups of couples that was offered in the first four to five months of enrollment in the program. Complementing the workshops was a second component, offered for the year after enrollment, that consisted of supplemental activities: educational and social events that were intended to build on and reinforce lessons from the curricula. The third component was family support services.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

A Family-Strengthening Program for Low-Income Families

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The program's central and most intensive component was a series of relationship and marriage education workshops for groups of couples that was offered in the first four to five months of enrollment in the program.

Complementing the workshops was a second component, offered for the year after enrollment, that consisted of supplemental activities: educational and social events that were intended to build on and reinforce lessons from the curricula.

The third component, family support services, paired couples with a specialized staff member who maintained contact with them and facilitated their participation in the other two components throughout the duration of the program.

Control

Business as usual

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

A Family-Strengthening Program for Low-Income Families

The program's central and most intensive component was a series of relationship and marriage education workshops for groups of couples that was offered in the first four to five months of enrollment in the program.

Complementing the workshops was a second component, offered for the year after enrollment, that consisted of supplemental activities: educational and social events that were intended to build on and reinforce lessons from the curricula.

The third component, family support services, paired couples with a specialized staff member who maintained contact with them and facilitated their participation in the other two components throughout the duration of the program.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• To be eligible for the study, couples were supposed to be low income, married, at least 18 years old, and either expecting a child or parents of a child under age 18 who was living in their home -- though couples were not required to provide any documentation verifying that they met these eligibility criteria.
• They also had to understand one of the languages in which SHM services were offered (English or, in some locations, Spanish).

Exclusion Criteria

• Indication of domestic violence in the relationship

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Abt Associates

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Child Trends

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Optimal Solutions Group

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Public Strategies

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

MDRC

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

JoAnn Hsueh

Sr. Research Associate II, Deputy Director F&C

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

JoAnn Hsueh, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

MDRC

Locations

Catholic Charities

Wichita, Kansas, United States

MDRC

New York, New York, United States

University Behavioral Associates

The Bronx, New York, United States

Public Strategies, Inc

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

Community Prevention Partnership of Berks County

Reading, Pennsylvania, United States

Texas Department of Health and Human Services

Houston, Texas, United States

Becoming Parents Program, Inc

Seattle, Washington, United States

Center for Human Services

Shoreline, Washington, United States

Countries

United States

References

Supporting Healthy Marriage Toolkit: Resources for Program Operators from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Demonstration and Evaluation. 2011. MDRC.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Fein, David J. (2009). Spending Time Together: Time Use Estimates for Economically Disadvantaged and Nondisadvantaged Married Couples in the United States. Working Paper.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Knox, Virginia and David J. Fein (2008). Designing a Marriage Education Demonstration and Evaluation for Low-Income Married Couples. Working Paper.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Fein, David J. (2004). Married and Poor: Basic Characteristics of Economically Disadvantaged Couples in the U.S. Working Paper.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

Lundquist, Erika, JoAnn Hsueh, Amy E. Lowenstein, Kristen Faucetta, Daniel Gubits, Charles Michalopoulos, and Virginia Knox (2014). A Family-Strengthening Program for Low-Income Families: Final Impacts from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation. OPRE Report 2014-09A. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Lowenstein, Amy E., Noemi Altman, Patricia M. Chou, Kristen Faucetta, Adam Greeney, Daniel Gubits, Jorgen Harris, JoAnn Hsueh, Erika Lundquist, Charles Michalopoulos, and Vinh Q. Nguyen (2014). A Family-Strengthening Program for Low-Income Families: Final Impacts from the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation, Technical Supplement. OPRE Report 2014-09B. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Gubits, Daniel, Amy E. Lowenstein, Jorgen Harris, and JoAnn Hsueh (2014). Do the Effects of a Relationship Education Program Vary for Different Types of Couples? Exploratory Subgroup Analysis in the Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation. OPRE Report 2014-22. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Lloyd, Chrishana M., Ashley Weech, Jennifer Miller Gaubert (2014). Perspectives of Low-Income African-American and Latino Couples on Relationship Education. Working Paper.

Reference Type: RESULT

Hsueh, JoAnn, Desiree Principe Alderson, Erika Lundquist, Charles Michalopoulos, Daniel Gubits, David Fein, and Virginia Knox (2012). The Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation: Early Impacts on Low Income Families. OPRE Report 2012-11. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Hsueh, JoAnn, Desiree Principe Alderson, Erika Lundquist, Charles Michalopoulos, Daniel Gubits, and David Fein (2012). The Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation: Early Impacts on Low-Income Families, Technical Supplement. OPRE Report 2012-27. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Miller Gaubert, Jennifer, Daniel Gubits, Desiree Principe Alderson, and Virginia Knox (2012). The Supporting Healthy Marriage Evaluation: Final Implementation Findings. OPRE Report 2012-12. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Reference Type: RESULT

Miller Gaubert, Jennifer, Virginia Knox, Desiree Principe Alderson, Christopher Dalton, Kate Fletcher, and Meghan McCormick. Early Lessons from the Implementation of a Relationship and Marriage Skills Program for Low-Income Married Couples. 2010. MDRC.

Reference Type: RESULT

Other Identifiers

HHS-233-03-0034

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id