Building Us Up Stronger: Creating Relationship Norms through a Relationship Education Program

• In Event: 261 - Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Paper Session. Sociology in Action

Abstract

Policy and program analysis typically has a very focused lens, allowing for an in-depth study of implementation and measured outcomes. Examining programs from a sociological perspective can be essential in helping scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to understand more than what happened, but also why the program had, or failed to have, the identified consequences on participants. In the present study, a sociological approach is taken to understanding the results of federally funded relationship education programs targeted at low-income, unmarried parents. Longitudinal qualitative interviews with participants in one such program reveal that it is limited in its ability to address parents’ complex struggles—with mental health, housing, and employment, among others. However, understanding the larger cultural context around romantic relationships today—one of deinstitutionalization—and the micro-level consequences of this context—fewer relationship role models and difficulty building the foundation for a trusting relationship—help to explain why low-income, new parents choose to take part in the program and find it beneficial: they have a deep need for shared expectations and norms in their romantic unions to which the program is responsive. While their cultural and social environments create confusion around romantic relationships, the program offers some desired clarity.

Author

• Sarah Halpern-Meekin, University of Wisconsin-Madison