Marriage Mentoring

The high rate of marital distress and divorce,especially within the first few years of marriage,seems to indicate that couples are not adequatelyprepared to deal with the challenges of marriage.Concern for this issue has prompted professionals topropose mentoring for premarital and newly marriedcouples as a way of helping them prepare formarriage. Significant research in the areas ofbusiness, education, and at-risk youth reveal thatmentoring offers numerous benefits for those who areengaged in it. This study takes a look at thementoring process and its effect on the attitude andbehavior of premarital couples. Triangulation of datawas used in the form of a mentoring survey and afocus group so that information could be collectedfor concurrent validity. The results of this studyshowed that marriage mentoring was most helpful inthe areas of helping couples have more realisticexpectations for marriage and as a way of providingsupport and confidence for starting marriage. It alsoindicated that different types of couples may benefitin different ways from the mentoring experienceaccording to their strengths and growth areas.