Relationship enhancement with premarital couples: An assessment of effects on relationship quality

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a relationship enhancement program on the relationship adjustment; trust and intimacy; empathy, warmth and genuinesness; and communication of premarital couples. Twenty-five experimental couples were given the Guerney Relationship Enhancement program over an eight-week period, while 29 couples participated in a relationship discussion group over the same period of time. Self-report measures designed to assess the dependent variables were administered to the experimental and control groups at pretest and posttest. Results showed that following training the experimental group, relative to the control group, made significant increases on all dependent variables. Discussion centered on the benefits of relationship enhancement on improving both the empathy and self-disclosure behavioral skill levels and the self-report indices of relationship quality.