Delivering Relationship Education Services to Youth.

Studies show that increasing numbers of teens from 1975 to 1995 felt that marriage and family life were "extremely important" to them. In 2005, most teens continued to feel favorably about marriage. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 90 percent of Americans will marry someday. Relationships as depicted in popular books and movies are new and exciting to youth. Even so, many teens have experienced divorce in the family and are pessimistic about the possibility of having a stable, two-parent household or a lifelong marriage. Relationship education (RE) services are, therefore, a timely, vital intervention to help teens achieve their relationship goals. However, since the field is relatively new, programs for youth can be difficult to create. The following are tips to navigate common challenges in delivering RE services to teens. (Author abstract)