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The Forever Initiative: A Feasible Public Policy Agenda to Help Couples Form and Sustain Healthy Marriages and Relationships Paperback – June 18, 2013

by Alan J. Hawkins Ph.D. (Author)

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In The Forever Initiative, Hawkins calls for more state-directed public support for a series of educational efforts to help individuals and couples form healthy relationships and enduring marriages. He outlines an integrated set of feasible and affordable educational initiatives across the early life course, beginning in youth, continuing in early adulthood, during cohabitation, engagement, and through the early years of marriage, as well as for couples at the crossroads of divorce. While the causes of family instability are many and deep, he reviews the early, encouraging evidence that these kinds of educational initiatives can help to strengthen relationships and increase family stability. He argues that this public policy agenda of educational initiatives can make more young people today better drivers of their romantic relationships, more competent at avoiding destructive detours, and more capable of achieving their marital aspirations and destinations.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 18, 2013
Dimensions

5.98 x 0.74 x 9.02 inches
ISBN-10

1484850718
ISBN-13

978-1484850718
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About the Author

Alan J. Hawkins is a professor of Family Life at Brigham University in Provo, Utah, USA. He earned a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in 1990. Professor Hawkins' has taught and conducted research and outreach at Brigham Young University since 1990. His scholarship and outreach focuses on educational and policy interventions to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. In 2003-2004, he was a visiting scholar with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), working on the federal healthy marriage initiative. He was the Research Director of the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center from 2004-2006. He was the Chair of the Utah Healthy Marriage Initiative from 2008-2010. He is a member of the Research Advisory Group of the Oklahoma Healthy Marriage Initiative.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 18, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1484850718
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1484850718
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.74 x 9.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #9,963,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #62,612 in Public Affairs & Policy Politics Books

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Dean H. Becker

A good book on marriage counseling

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2013

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A notable effort to revitalize marriages by using available government funded resources which is excellent for lower income persons who desire to positively affect their marriages.

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KG

Hope that it gets the attention that it deserves

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2014

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The results of America's high divorce rates are apparent to many. States waste vast sums of money on legal and administrative costs related to divorce. Children of divorce experience higher crime rates and get less education than their peers, and even have shorter life spans. Poverty, crime, and socioeconomic status are closely related to family instability. A few books deal with the horrendous damage caused by the break-down of American families. This book is unique in its discussion of relatively practical and realistic ways to fix the problem, by somebody who understands public policy.

Dr. Hawkin's proposals have a few parts: Marriage preparation (Marriage Relationship Education), Marriage maintenance education, and Divorce orientation education. After discussing the scope of the problem and a short history of previous efforts, he has an important section to refute the logic of common criticisms of government efforts to support marriage. It is not hopeless, it is not a waste of taxpayer dollars, it is not government “interference in people's private lives”, and it is a legitimate social concern as a part of the fight against poverty.

Divorce reform today is like tobacco reforms in the 1960s. America could and did gradually pass laws to reduce smoking and improve public health since the 1960s despite considerable resistance, and we can pass laws to gradually reduce divorce and strength marriage now.

The chapters on Marriage Preparation and Marriage Maintenance are well thought out. Marriage preparation is divided into two forms: for formally engaged couples and for cohabiting couples. His coverage of many existing programs and much research about them is excellent, and is in line with what I was taught in my Prepare/Enrich certification class.

Divorce orientation is going to be controversial, but it shouldn't be. Most states have mandatory “co-parenting education” for both the divorcing parent and the defendant after the divorce is already confirmed – why not spend a little effort to avoid the divorce and really help the children?

A strength of this book is the discussion of funding. Using 1% of federal grants to states for needy families seems like a good idea, as does having the operations done mostly by States.

Overall, this is a great book which is very much needed. I hope that it gets the attention that it deserves

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Truth Lover KB

Flawed Premise for Government's Role

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015

You'd think the Christian Right would have learned that expanding the government's role in a couple's marriage is not a good thing. This whole "healthy marriage" movement sprang from several goals. First, the recognition that indeed, adults in healthy marriages experience all sorts of benefits, affecting their children, finances and even their own health in a positive way. Second, the desire to divert as much Federal money as possible within HHS to groups who had begun holding teaching sessions for couples (all of which were religious in nature) so that Left-leaning groups who were not interested in marriage training couldn't access those funds. And so, hundreds of millions of dollars went into a "Healthy Marriage Initiative." But here's the problem: those efforts began in the early 2000s, such that by now pretty much all of the studies reviewing its effectiveness are now back. The verdict? There was NO impact on whether couples stayed together longer. None. So however Hawkins and other mostly Christian counselors try to spin it, if they're consistent with their belief in limited government and a reduction in government spending, cutting programs that do not work would be a good place to start. Let me note that I am a conservative policy analyst with more than 20 years experience who values integrity and consistency, and who is willing to challenge any program that doesn't work, of which this is just one. So the notion that we should not only continue any kind of government funding for these programs, and even expand them, must be challenged.

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David B. Muhlhausen

The author's objectivity in presenting the results of evaluations of ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2016

The author's objectivity in presenting the results of evaluations of these programs is certainly lacking. The majority evaluations that assess the effectiveness of these program frequently do not assess whether 1) low-income unmarried couples with or expecting children get married and 2) low-income married couples stay married. Randomized experiments certainly do not provide convincing evidence of effectiveness.

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The Forever Initiative: A Feasible Public Policy Agenda to Help Couples Form and Sustain Healthy Marriages and Relationships Paperback – June 18, 2013

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