Evaluating the impact of religious pre-marital counseling based on marriage satisfaction

Marriage within the United States of America is experiencing record high divorce rates (Markman, 2001). This has led to family breakdowns, increased numbers of delinquent children and a rise in co-habitation couples. It is with this current state of affairs that religious pre-marital counseling is being used as a tool to help couples learn about marriage and better position themselves for a satisfying and lasting relationship. The purpose of this study is to explore the satisfaction of clients who attended religious pre-marital counseling and better understand how it has impacted their relationships. This study examined the marriage satisfaction level of participants in religious pre-marital counseling. The interviews found a high rate of personal satisfaction and a higher level of recommendation of the counseling to others from those who participated in pre-marital religiously based counseling. These results allow for psychologists and others in the counseling profession to help direct clients to visit with religious counselors before marriage because the individual/couple will ideally find satisfaction from the experience and perhaps increase their probability of a lasting marriage