Better marriage prep a shield against divorce

SALT LAKE CITY — Statistics about marriage and divorce are the backbone of research for social scientists.

"We live and breathe these kinds of data. I think they're very important for us," said Dean Busby, a professor in Brigham Young University's School of Family Life.

But when those numbers make the news, the impact they have on the general public isn't as clear.

"We hear divorce statistics over and over," said Nick Wolfinger, a University of Utah professor of family and consumer studies. "Is that depressing? Yes. But my response is always 'What are you going to do about it?'"

Whether an alarming statistic about divorce is a call to action or feeds the slippery slope toward a breakup isn't clear, he said.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released "Marital Events of Americans: 2009," which says marriage rates in Utah are higher than the national average. For Utahns, that is not news. Divorce rates in Utah are also higher, but since one has to marry to become a candidate for divorce, the higher divorce rate is statistically predictable and follows similar marriage-divorce trends in the other parts of the country, Wolfinger said.

Giving couples better relationship tools before they marry is an emphasis in both the academic and religious communities. But working with soon-to-be-marrieds can be a challenge — because they're in such a positive state of mind, Busby said, adding that he uses the term "La La Land" a lot when describing those with marriage on the horizon.

Busby leads the RELATE Institute at BYU, which provides research-based questionnaires couples can take to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in their relationship. "The evidence to date suggests that 30 to 40 percent of couples participate in some kind of premarital education," he said.

Women are more likely than men to initiate some kind of premarital education. The proliferation of online dating services and their surveys boosts the comfort level in taking an online relationship review. Face-to-face counseling is still the most daunting, Busby said.

Evaluating the benefits of premarital education is among Busby's current research projects. He said he is also interested in finding ways to make education opportunities more available to those with lower incomes, where divorce rates tend to be the highest.