Building Healthy Marriages through Early and Extended Outreach with Youth

Abstract

This article presents a case for faith communities to strengthen efforts to build healthy marriages during teen years through an ecological approach using individual, social network, organizational and community strategies. Community-based marriage preparation programs for engaged couples are effective in reducing divorce and distress in the early years of marriage. Extending these commitment- and skill-training efforts into teen years and linking them to positive youth development programs might increase these benefits, especially for high-risk couples. In addition, faith communities are critical catalysts in fostering support and training networks, community policy and outreach that can promote more positive environments for marriages and families. This article presents a model and suggests strategies to support early and extended outreach to build healthy marriages.

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