Participation Patterns in Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Programs: Lessons from Three Programs

For healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs to be effective, it is critical that participants attend regularly, yet studies have found that HMRE program providers sometimes struggle to maintain high rates of participation. Identifying and exploring typical participation patterns in HMRE programming is one way of understanding this challenge and indicates ways programs can promote and support regular participation. This brief summarizes participation patterns in three HMRE programs included in the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation: MotherWise, which served pregnant and new mothers in Denver, Colorado; Career STREAMS, which served young adults seeking job training and employment services in St. Louis, Missouri; and Empowering Families, which served couples with low incomes raising children together in Fort Worth, Texas. These programs represent a range of HMRE program services and populations and offer opportunities to develop deeper insights into participation patterns in HMRE programs.