Mapping Marital and Relationship Education Programs: Current Evidence and Future Directions

Marital and couple relationships are facing constant changes. Families are the basic social unit and the core constituent of society, and in the Arab region, the family is formed through marriage. It is the start of a covenant partnership, which goes beyond the rights and duties of each party and highlights the pastoral, protectionist, and educational role that parents undertake for future generations. In fact, these roles are also supported by the extended families, who play an important role in the formation, stability, and dissolution of any marriage. Given the importance of marriage globally and specifically in the Arab region, and the consequent branching of patterns and the structural challenges it faces, research interest in marriage has grown and policies and programs across the region have addressed various aspects of it. With the aim of adding onto international research in the field, this report on “Mapping Marital and Relationship Education Programs: Current Evidence and Future Directions” provides a desk-review of marital and relationship education programs (MRE), focusing on the Arab region. The following section will highlight the importance of the study, followed by the objectives, context, methodology, study limitations and will end with the key findings, thus providing an overview of the report’s findings.