The Marriage Checkup: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Annual Relationship Health Checkups

Objective: This study assessed the efficacy of the Marriage Checkup (MC) for improving relationship health and intimacy. Method: Cohabiting married couples (N = 215, M-age women = 44.5 years, men = 47 years, 93.1% Caucasian) recruited from a northeastern U. S. metropolitan area through print and electronic media were randomly assigned to MC treatment or wait-list control. Treatment but not control couples participated in assessment and feedback visits, at the beginning of the study and again 1 year later. All couples completed 9 sets of questionnaires over 2 years. Outcome measures included the Quality of Marriage Index, the Global Distress subscale of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised, the Intimate Safety Questionnaire, and the Relational Acceptance Questionnaire. Results: A latent growth curve model indicated significant between-group differences in intimacy at every measurement point after baseline (d ranged from.20 to.55, M-d = .37), significant between-group differences in women's felt acceptance for every measurement point after baseline (d ranged from .17 to.47, M-d = .34), significant between-group differences in men's felt acceptance through the 1-year 2-week follow-up (d across follow-up ranged from .11 to.40, M-d = .25), and significant between-group differences in relationship distress through 1-year 6-month follow-up (d across follow-up ranged from .11 to .39, M-d = .23). Conclusions: Longitudinal analysis of the MC supports the hypothesis that the MC significantly improves intimacy, acceptance, and satisfaction. Implications for dissemination are discussed.