The effectiveness of pre-marital program “PREP” in the relationships of undergraduate couples in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Pre-marital counselling is designed to enhance premarital relationships as leading to more satisfactory and stable marriages with the intended consequence of preventing divorce. Pre-marital education programs are knowledge and skills-based training applications. The Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) is an empirical intervention program to support the prevention of marital distress and divorce with short and long term effectiveness. PPEP is one of the intervention programs that promote pre-marriage counselling. The literature review shows that little is known about pre-marital counselling and no prior research in Sri Lanka has evaluated the effectiveness of PREP on the relationships of undergraduate couples. The data were collected using the mixed method approach comprising of pre-test and post-test quantitative questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This research selected 15 undergraduate heterosexual couples (15females and 15male) from the University of Peradeniya for the quantitative analysis and 3 couples were selected for the qualitative analysis. The T-Test and thematic analysis were adopted as the data analysis method. The research findings indicated that the T-Test was significant at <0.05 level indicating the program was successful. Moreover, there was a significant difference between before and after PREP (t=15.040, p<0.00025) in lessening vulnerability and risk in marriage by strengthening protective factors among the couples. The mean score of the 15 university undergraduate couples for the test was 146.13 (SD=14.738) before the PREP program and it increased to a mean of 176.47(SD=6.892) after they had participated in the PREP program. Couples stated that premarital programs are necessary for their lives and they recommended the PREP program for both married and unmarried couples.