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-income married couples strengthen their relationships and, in turn, support more stable and more nurturing home environments and more positive outcomes for children. The evaluation is led by MDRC, in collaboration with Abt Associates and other partners, and is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The SHM evaluation includes a rigorous random assignment research design that compares outcomes for families who are offered SHM’s services with outcomes for a similar group of families who are not offered SHM services but can access other services in the community. The evaluation also includes this implementation study documenting how eight local programs delivered SHM’s services. The SHM program offers a voluntary, yearlong package of relationship and marriage education services for low-income married couples who have children or are expecting a child. The model has three complementary components: group workshops based on structured curricula; supplemental activities to build on workshop themes; and family support services to address participation barriers, connect families with needed resources, and reinforce curricular themes. This report presents final findings from the SHM implementation study, the characteristics of couples who enrolled, and their participation in the program.  (author abstract)

In 2002, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) instituted the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) evaluation to document operational lessons and assess the effectiveness of community-based approaches to support healthy relationships, marriages, and child well-being. The evaluation is being conducted by RTI International and The Urban Institute. A component of the CHMI study involved an implementation study on initiatives approved by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) under authority of Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.1 The goals of the initiatives were to improve the child support systems through community engagement and healthy marriage and relationship education programs. Operationally, these goals included direct improvements to the child support program, like increasing the number of child support orders established, increasing paternity establishment, and increasing payment toward support obligations. The broader context for these operational goals was improving child well-being and increasing parental responsibility.

This is the final in a series of reports being produced on the implementation of demonstrations in 14 sites receiving grants under the 1115 waivers. Earlier reports covered the implementation of initiatives in Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Jacksonville, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nampa, Idaho; and New Orleans, Louisiana. This report focuses on the initiatives in Marion County, Indiana; Clark County, Ohio; Lakewood, Washington; and Yakima, Washington. The goal of the implementation studies was to describe the nature of the community initiatives, including recruitment and outreach strategies, targeting efforts, and innovative approaches for linking child support with healthy relationship and marriage support activities. This report examines key aspects of the initiatives’ community partnerships, design and implementation of service delivery, and links with child support. It does not present estimates of program impacts or effectiveness. The report is based on site visits conducted in 2010, 3 to 5 years after the initiatives were initially approved as well as information provided over the course of operations by grantees. Because these visits took place when the initiatives were ongoing, this report is not a complete accounting of what the initiatives accomplished or how many people they served over the course of their waivers. (author abstract)

In recent decades, there has been a widening gap between higher rates of marital instability for economically disadvantaged couples and lower rates for nondisadvantaged couples. In addition, out-of-wedlock birth rates have risen, while evidence has grown that children fare better, on average, when raised by both of their parents in stable low-conflict households. All of these trends were important rationales for the development of a federal Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI) within the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Through grants to a range of state and local agencies, the HMI emphasizes provision of marriage education, a voluntary preventive service aimed at providing interested couples with skills and information that may help them to develop and sustain successful marriages and relationships.

In this chapter, we introduce the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation — the first large-scale, multisite experiment that tests marriage education programs for low-income married couples with children. The SHM conceptual framework recognizes multiple sources of relationship strength and weakness, and the project’s program model has followed this frame-work closely in adapting the content and delivery of marriage education services for low-income married parents. Eight sites (with some sites spanning multiple organizations) are operating SHM programs around the country. SHM is testing a relatively intensive and comprehensive form of marriage education designed specifically for low-income families. Its year-long program model packages a series of marriage education workshops with additional family support, including case management, supportive services, and referrals to outside services as needed. The evaluation includes two interrelated substudies — one focusing on sites’ experiences in implementing the SHM model and the other measuring program impacts on marital quality and stability, child well-being, and a range of other outcomes. (author abstract)

This report is a technical supplement to the 15-month impact report for the Building Strong Families (BSF) evaluation (Wood et al. 2010). It provides additional detail about the research design (Chapter I), analytic methods (Chapter II), and variable construction (Chapters III and IV) that were used for the 15-month analysis. Chapter V of this report provides a discussion of the subgroup analysis that was conducted. The full set of impact results generated as part of this analysis is included in the appendices of this volume. (author abstract)

The Building Strong Families (BSF) project is a large-scale program demonstration and rigorous evaluation to learn whether well-designed interventions can help interested romantically involved unmarried parents build stronger relationships and fulfill their aspirations for a healthy marriage if they choose to wed. The central question of the evaluation is whether interventions can succeed in helping these parents improve their couple relationships, enter into and sustain healthy marriages, and enhance the well-being of their children.  Sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S.  Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the project has been underway since late 2002 and involves programs operating in seven sites.  This report analyzes the implementation of the BSF program in these sites and presents information on their development, operations and lessons learned, and provides context for the future analysis of program impacts on couples and their children.  Specifically, the report addresses the following questions:

What is the context in which programs are implemented?

How are participants identified as eligible for BSF and then enrolled in the program?

What are the characteristics of couples that choose to enroll in BSF?

How is the BSF model put into operation at local sites?

To what extent do enrolled couples attend and complete BSF?

What is the experience of couples enrolled in the BSF program?

What are the lessons learned that may be useful for other similar programs?

(author abstract)

The BSF project is both a demonstration and a rigorous evaluation. The evaluation will thoroughly analyze whether the intervention is successful in improving the outcomes of the couples and their children. Interested and eligible couples are randomly assigned to either the program group or to a control group. Program group couples are invited to participate in the BSF intervention; control group couples are free to receive whatever services may be available except the BSF program. Randomly assigning couples in this way eliminates the concern that differences between couples who choose to participate in the program and those who do not would generate differences in outcomes that would obscure the true effects of the program. This could happen, for example, if these couples had greater commitment or stability in their relationship compared to couples who did not express interest in the program. With random assignment, differences in outcomes are unbiased and can be attributed to the program.

An initial pilot stage offered seven local sites the opportunity to develop programs in accordance with the BSF model and make refinements based on early experiences. At the end of the pilot, sites were selected for the evaluation. To be selected, sites had to demonstrate that they could effectively implement the program model and recruit and retain a sufficient number of couples. All seven pilot sites qualified for the evaluation, although some conditions must still be fulfilled in some sites.

This report documents early lessons from the program development and pilot stages of the project. The information we draw on was gathered during the pilot period, which generally ran from February 2005 to February 2006. Since that time, all sites have expanded into full-scale operations, and changes may be occurring as a result of ongoing experience and technical assistance. Therefore, current practices may differ somewhat from what is reported here.

Although this report is based on a very early stage of the BSF project, it represents a policy-relevant advance in our understanding of the field of healthy marriage initiatives—particularly in terms of the strategies that hold promise for supporting low-income unwed couples as they strive to achieve their aspirations for a healthy marriage. The report does not analyze impacts, nor does it replace a full-scale implementation study, which will not be available for another year. It does, however, document the successes and challenges experienced by the BSF pilot sites and the approaches they took to address these challenges. It also sheds some light on the types of families that are attracted to the BSF program and on their responses to it. As such, the report offers lessons not only for federal policymakers, but also for other states, agencies, and program practitioners seeking to develop similar programs. (author abstract)

The Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative is a focused strategy to address the unique cultural, linguistic, demographic, and socioeconomic needs of a growing population of Hispanic children and families in the United States. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), funded the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative (HHMI) Grantee Implementation Evaluation to learn how relationship and marriage education programs serving primarily Hispanic individuals and couples are marketing services and developing culturally appropriate materials and programming for diverse Hispanic populations. This study is an implementation evaluation, not an impact evaluation.

The Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative is a focused strategy to address the unique cultural, linguistic, demographic, and socioeconomic needs of a growing population of Hispanic children and families in the United States.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), funded the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative (HHMI) Grantee Implementation Evaluation to learn how relationship and marriage education programs serving primarily Hispanic individuals and couples are marketing services and developing culturally appropriate materials and programming for diverse Hispanic populations. This study represents an implementation evaluation, not an impact evaluation.

 *OPRE managed, funded by ASPE.