Progress 07/01/03 to 06/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Great Marriages: A Qualitative Study. This five-year study has focused on highly-successful marriages across the country and links the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with colleagues at Utah State University at Logan. The purpose of the work is to identify the qualities of highly satisfying and successful marriages from the couple's perspective and use this information to develop educational materials for dissemination through the Extension system and other publishing and presentation outlets. A longer-term goal is to develop research and education alliances with several other countries around the world interested in enriching marriages in their cultures and advise them on conceptual and methodological issues related to this type of research, as well as on the development of educational materials based on their findings. For example, a study looking at couple and family strengths has already begun in China and an 8-person research team is working under the auspices of the Hong Kong YWCA on this project. University of Nebraska researchers are serving as advisors to the project. To date, a 31-page research instrument was created at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Great Marriages: A Qualitative Study, in collaboration with Extension faculty at Utah State University. This instrument helped to guide 32 qualitative interviews that were conducted with European American, Latino American, and American Indian couples in the State of Utah. Based on the 32 interviews in Utah, the research instrument was revised and the current version includes 11 questions focusing on demographic information; 46 open-ended qualitative questions probing a comprehensive set of couple and family issues; 66 closed-end quantitative questions looking at couple strengths; and 4 closed-end quantitative questions focusing on parent-child relationship strengths. The revised instrument was used to collect written material from surveys mailed to couples in 35 states across the U.S. 170 husband and wives, whose total anonymity has been preserved, have participated in the study to date. Thirty-one pages of written material were collected from each of these 85 couples for a total of 2,635 pages of testimony suitable for qualitative analysis. PARTICIPANTS: John DeFrain, Ph.D., Professor and Extension Specialist in Family and Community Development, Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Linda Skogrand, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Family Life Extension Specialist, Department of Family, Consumer and Human Development, Utah State University at Logan. Pam Morrill, M.S., Doctoral Student, Department of Family, Consumer and Human Development, Utah State University at Logan. LouAnn Woolman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Human Services, Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska. Nikki DeFrain, M.S., Independent Researcher, Lincoln, Nebraska. Institutional Collaborations: Navajo Institutional Review Board, Arizona. University of Nebraska-Lincoln for Families Writing Team (a group of 40 Extension educators in Nebraska). YWCA of Hong Kong, People's Republic of China. TARGET AUDIENCES: The ultimate goal of this work is to develop research-based materials for couples on the state, national and international levels to help strengthen relationships in an effort to improve the quality of life for children, youth and adult partners in families. Even though this is an AD-421 Termination Report for the project, the work will continue, perhaps for at least another ten years. We hope to expand the data base of couples from 170 participants to 600 or 800, not only in the U.S. but in other countries around the world. We will continue writing research-based Extension materials for couples that will be offered in print through NebGuides at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Fact Sheets at Utah State University. These materials will also appear on the two universities' websites. At least two books are planned: the first, which is in progress, will be written for a lay audience of couples; the second, which will be more research-oriented will be written for a professional audience. To date we have made many face-to-face presentations to professional and lay audiences in our home states and across the U.S. on family strengths and great marriages, and these will continue as the research unfolds. Finally, through our advising and consultation with researchers and practitioners in other countries, we hope to have international impact by encouraging the study of great marriages around the world and advising other countries on how to develop educational materials from these studies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Preliminary analysis of the data from interviews with Navajo couples in Utah led to the development of a culturally-sensitive activity book for couples. Analysis of the written testimony from 170 husbands and wives across the country continues. One doctoral dissertation and three master's theses have been produced from the data so far. Articles are now being written from the data by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Utah State University at Logan team members, and writing on a series of Extension NebGuides and a book for couples, Great Marriages, has begun.
Publications
- Morrill, P. (2006). Couples in great marriages with a traditional structure and an egalitarian relationship. Master's thesis. Logan, UT: Utah State University.
- Rosenband, R. (2007). An exploratory qualitative study of dual-earner couples in great marriages: The view from the empty nest. Master's thesis. Logan, UT: Utah State University.
- Skogrand, L., Hatch, D., & Singh, A. (2008). Strong marriages in Latino culture. In R. Dalla, J. DeFrain, J. Johnson, & D. Abbott (Eds). Strengths and challenges of new immigrant families: Implications for research, policy, education and service (pp. 117-134). Landover, MD: Lexington Books.
- Skogrand, L., Mueller, L., Crook, R., Spotted Elk, D., Dayzie, I., LeBlanc, H., & Rosenband, R. (2007). Strong marriages for Navajo couples: Couple activity book. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Extension.
- Skogrand, L., Singh, A., & Hatch, D. (2006). The role of religion in Latino marriages. Journal for the Study of Marriage and Spirituality, 12, 178-189.
- Woolman, L. (2006). How children serve to deepen a couple's marital bond: A qualitative study of great marriages. Doctoral dissertation. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska. Available from: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3237487/
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The size of the sample of couples that have completed participation in the Great Marriages study was expanded this year to include 85 partners, giving us a total sample of 170 people so far. We continue to seek couples for the study. Participation means a considerable investment of time for couples, since the instrument is 32 pages long and takes several hours of concentrated writing on the part of both husband and wife. Also this year, the first doctoral dissertation was completed from the data, focusing on "Great Marriages and Parenthood." Two new doctoral students in family studies expressed interest in the study and are seriously considering doing doctoral dissertations using the data.
PARTICIPANTS: Lou Ann Woolman, doctoral student, Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Now serving as Assistant Professor of Human Services, Bellevue University, Bellevue, Nebraska. Dr. Georgia Stevens, Professor Emeritus, Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Linda Skogrand, Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Human Development, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.
TARGET AUDIENCES: Findings will be of use to couples and families, and to professionals who serve couples and families, including counselors, social workers, psychologists, religious professionals, family life educators, and related professions working with families.
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: No changes to project direction or scope.
Impacts
Current efforts focus on the completion of a professional journal article for Marriage & Family Review on the great marriages and parenthood study. The study delineated 12 ways in which the advent of children into a couple's life bring meaning, purpose, and strengthen the marital bond. This is an important new finding and sheds a different light on the research literature on the transition to parenthood. Past research has tended toward the "doom and gloom" assumption, focusing on how marital satisfaction declines over time. Findings from this sample of highly satisfying and loving marriages brings a new perspective to the parenting literature, which is important. Besides a planned journal article on the data, a series of NebGuides will be written for use by Extension educators, other professionals, and laypersons nationally and internationally. The research will also be highlighted on a new book project we are working on with Extension educators across the State of
Nebraska, focusing on how to strengthen relationships among young couples.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04
Outputs
Working with a team of researchers in Nebraska, Utah, and the People's Republic of China on related studies of couple and family strengths. The team in the U.S. has completed 32 in-depth, face-to-face interviews with couples who believe they have high-quality, successful marriages. The interviews have been transcribed and qualitative analysis has begun. On the basis of this pilot effort, the American team has decided to expand the study to include 300 or 400 couples, if possible. To do this, we have reconstructed the interview format into a questionnaire that can be mailed across the country. Beginning in early 2005 we will be sending the questionnaire to couples who are solicited for the study through newspapers and other media. The questionnaire includes 9 demographic items; 46 qualitative questions assessing a broad range of aspects of marital and family relationships; and 62 quantitative questions measuring couple and family strengths suitable for statistical
analysis. Meanwhile, work with researchers at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Sociology continues in this vein. Professor Xu Anqi visited with us at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in April, 2004, to discuss the study in some detail, and we will meet again in 2005. The aim is to use interview and questionnaire methodologies to reach 1,000 couples in Shanghai, one of the largest cities in the People's Republic of China, focusing on couple and family strengths. If this succeeds, we will expand the study to include rural couples, also.
Impacts
By pooling our resources nationally and internationally, we hope to collect solid data on strong marriages and use this information to develop educational materials and programs to help strengthen couple and family relationships in the U.S. and China. There is a considerable amount of interest on the federal level in the area of strengthening marriages, and this research is designed to fit well with the national and state-wide initiatives that are gaining traction.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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