The College of Human Sciences and the Family Development department at Texas Tech can save a marriage before it even starts. Plus, they pay participants $20.
Steve Harris, associate dean of the college, said he and his colleagues are offering a pre-marital education and counseling program.
Students in committed relationships with the possibility of marriage visit the college and complete a compatibility determining survey. The compatibility test is designed primarily to determine how each person perceives the other, said Chance Ates, a doctoral student in the College of Human Sciences. If the couple perceives each other about the same, the relationship will probably work; if they do not, it probably will not.
Each couple is then assigned to a six-week treatment program suited to their counseling needs. The counseling session is not therapy.
"We assume all the relationships are healthy and that there are not major existing problems," said Ates. "If major relational problems do exist, the counseling is stopped and the couple is referred to therapy."
Upon completion of the counseling, which can be completed in three to eight weeks, the department performs a follow-up six months later to determine the post-counseling status of the relationship and gives the couple a $20 gift certificate.
The program currently has 50 couples participating but would like to see that number increase to 75, Harris said.
In terms of the success of the program in lowering the divorce rate, there has not been sufficient data collected to determine. There is also a lack of data to determine how beneficial the program has been for couples.
Kim White, a graduate student from Dallas, said the program benefited her.
"I think the program is very effective in determining whether or not the relationship has potential," she said.
White participated in the program with her boyfriend and said she would strongly encourage other serious couples to participate.
"It makes you talk about things you need to talk about but wouldn't ordinarily think to," she said.
Harris said while not all relationships will work after the counseling, the program is still beneficial.
"The success of the program does not necessarily hinge on the success of the relationships," he said.
Some participants have decided not to pursue the counseling and education portion of the program.
Upon completion of the compatibility test and receipt of low compatibility scores, they have simply decided to break up, said Harris.
While this is a failed relationship, it is probably one less divorce to occur in the future, he said, and that is a reduction in the divorce rate.
Other couples, however, have gone on to get married, some during counseling and some after. This is also a success because the couples are aware of the extent to which they are compatible, in which areas, and how to effectively communicate with each other as spouses, said Ates.
The program is confidential. The person who records the personal information does not see the test results and the counseling facilitators do not see any personal information.
The program was started two years ago, when the Texas Legislature raised the price of marriage licenses in the state, said Harris. Part of the funds raised from the price increase went into the Family Trust Fund, which is used to fund research projects aimed at lowering the divorce rate. The College of Human Sciences received a grant from this money for premarital education and counseling.
"The government basically hired Texas Tech to lower the divorce rate," said Ates.
The state's concern with the divorce rate is the money divorces cost the state. Harris said divorces cost the federal and state government approximately $33.3 billion per year.
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