In an attempt to strengthen marriages during the transition to parenthood, the Marriage Moments program was developed from Blaine Fowers' virtues based model of marital quality. Marriage Moments is a non-intrusive, mostly self-guided approach to marriage education, which is easily incorporated into childbirth education classes. The Marriage Moments curriculum stresses building marriage on a strong foundation of friendship and partnership. In this model, marital friendship is strengthened through a shared vision of life and important life goals; partnership is nurtured by the virtues of generosity, fairness and loyalty. This program was tested on 155 married couples that were expecting their first child. Couples were randomly assigned to one control or two treatment groups. The control group participated in a childbirth education class, but did not receive the Marriage Moments program. The instructor-encouraged treatment group viewed the Marriage Moments video in their childbirth education classes and were encouraged to do workbook activities by their class instructor; the self-guided treatment group couples were given the video and workbook to use at home. The Marriage Moments video is comprised of five, eight-minute segments introducing the marital virtues of friendship, generosity, fairness and loyalty. The workbook provides couples with additional information about the transition to parenthood and the possible applications of the virtues principles, including individual and couple activities. All couples were assessed using a battery of self- and spouse-report measures immediately before and after their child-birth classes and then at three and nine months after the birth of their babies. This longitudinal study examined the effect of the Marriage Moments program on marital virtues, marital quality, and intentionality. Relationship outcome measures included in this study were the Marital Virtues Profile, Revised-Dyadic Adjustment Scale, RELATE Satisfaction subscale and Transition Adjustment Scale. Treatment group couples reported high involvement in and enjoyment of the program. When asked to rate the program, couples evaluated the program as 'important' and 'worthwhile.' However, despite positive program evaluation, statistical tests revealed no consistent difference between the control and treatment groups over four times. Subgroup analysis also failed to reveal group differences when controlling for education, number of years married, and early marital distress. Suggestions for future study include contrasts of skills and virtues based curriculums, as well as high and low dosage interventions. In addition, this program should be studied in both clinical and educational settings.

This study evaluates the efficacy of a self-guided, low-intensity curriculum, Marriage Moments, based on Fowers' (2000) virtues model of marital quality that emphasizes friendship, generosity, justice and loyalty. The Marriage Moments program consists of a guidebook and a video that were designed to strengthen marriages during the transition to parenthood and is used in the context of a home visitation program for first-time parents. Participants in the study included 119 married couples who had recently given birth to their first child. They were assigned to either a treatment, comparison or control group. The treatment group received the Marriage Moments curriculum as well as the Welcome Baby home visitation curriculum, the comparison group only received the Welcome Baby curriculum and the control group received neither program. Data were gathered through a battery of self- and spouse-report measures given at 3-months, 4-months, and 9-months postpartum. Relationship outcome measures included in this study were the Marital Virtues Profile, Revised-Dyadic Adjustment Scale, RELATE Satisfaction subscale, Transition Adjustment Scale, Father Involvement Scale, Household Labor Scale, and Maternal Depression Scale. Despite positive evaluations of the program from participants, analyses revealed a lack of significant, positive effects for members of the treatment group. Further research is needed before reliable conclusions can be drawn about the value of a marital virtues model as a guide for low intensity intervention.

Strengthening marriages is important to the well-being of individuals, families and communities. The transition to parenthood brings with it particular risks and opportunities for marriage relationships, yet no interventions have been successful in accessing a large number of couples during this critical time prepare and strengthen them for the challenges of becoming parents. The healthcare system has an established education infrastructure (childbirth education) that interacts with a significant number of couples during the transition to parenthood and has become increasingly open to incorporating relationship strengthening efforts into existing programs. The Marriage Moments program was designed to access couples through this system. This new approach to marriage education employs a program design unique in three ways: the context of childbirth education, a low-intensity content based on a model of marital virtues, and a simple, self-administered format of materials that gives the program great flexibility and transportability that can be implemented in a variety of existing systems. Initial formative program evaluation data show that the program is well received by participating couples. Marriage Moments is currently being pilot tested to evaluate its effectiveness in strengthening marriage through the transition, but it is expected the program will be disseminated widely and reach numerous couples as they transition to parenthood.