Impacts of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program: Pilot study with married couples in China

Abstract Objective This study aimed to implement a culturally adapted Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP) for marital couples in Beijing, China, and evaluate its impact on marital relationship–related outcomes. Background The rising divorce rate and decreasing marital satisfaction are becoming significant social concerns in China, which faces a critical shortage of culturally appropriate educational resources for relationship education. It is therefore urgent to tailor and pilot couple relationship education interventions in China. Methods The study design was a quasi‐experimental intervention involving couples and individuals within marital relationships in Beijing, China. We assigned 112 participants equally into two groups: a treatment group that received the structural PREP program and a control group that did not. Results Overall, the PREP intervention improved all seven dimensions of relationship quality that we examined, with each of these effects statistically significant at the .01 level (the effect size of impacts ranges from 0.32 to 0.93). Conclusions Our study showed that a culturally adapted PREP had a significant impact on improving marital couples' relationship quality‐related outcomes. Implications The noticeable benefits from our study suggest the need for locally adapted couple relationship education programs to prevent marital distress and divorce.