Empowering Families Project

Empowering Families Project: An RCT of the Effects of Relationship Education With and Without Ancillary Economic Services on Family Outcomes

This RCT will test the marginal benefit of adding economic-focused services to traditional relationship education (RE) interventions. 344 couples will be randomly assigned to the RE only or RE plus economic-services condition. All couples will be assessed at baseline, 6-weeks, 6-months, and 12-months. This project will examine whether couples in the RE plus condition have better relationship and economic outcomes than couples in the RE only condition.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Relationship, Marital; Couples; Relational Problems
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Family Wellness; Behavioral: Career Coaching; Behavioral: Financial Planning

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 666
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Fort Worth, Texas, United States, 76107
      • The Parenting Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• couples involved in a romantic relationship

Exclusion Criteria:

• current domestic violence or child maltreatment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment-only; Participants in the this group will receive core Relationship Education programming, which consists of six weekly 2.5-hour Family Wellness Workshops.	Behavioral: Family Wellness; https://familywellness.com/
Experimental: Treatment-Plus; Participants in this group will receive an enhanced model that includes the core RE programming, and adds economic-focused services which include two 2.5-hour workshops (one on financial planning and one on career coaching), as well as individual financial planning and career coaching services ongoing for up to one year.	Behavioral: Family Wellness; https://familywellness.com/; Behavioral: Career Coaching; Individualized career coaching and employment services.; Behavioral: Financial Planning; Individualized financial planning services.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Relationship satisfaction	Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-4).	From baseline to 6-weeks, 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Positive Communication	Seven items, scored on four-point scale and averaged. Sample item: "My partner and I were good at working out our differences."	From baseline to 6-weeks, 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Negative Communication	Nine items, scored on four-point scale and averaged. Sample item: "My partner was rude or mean to me when we disagree."	From baseline to 6-weeks, 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Income	Single item: "How much would you say you personally as an individual earned in total from all work in the last month, before taxes and deductions?" Open numeric response	From baseline to 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Financial Strain	Five items assess the degree of difficulty the household has had fulfilling financial obligations and purchasing necessary items. Items scored on a 4-point scale and averaged.	From baseline to 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Financial Capability	Six items assess capability to manage household finances, (e.g., "In the last 2 months, have you been charged a late fee on a loan or bill?"). Items summed to form an index with range of 0-8 (two 3-point items, four 2-point items.	From baseline to 6-months, 12-months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Changes in Support and Affection	Five items, scored on four-point scale and averaged. Sample item: "My partner knows and understands me."	From baseline to 6-weeks, 6-months, 12-months
Changes in Wealth	Single item: "About how much money does your household have saved somewhere (in a savings account, 401k, hidden cash envelope, etc.)?" Open numeric response	From baseline to 6-months, 12-months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
• Collaborators: Department of Health and Human Services

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 29, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): September 29, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 27, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 27, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): May 3, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 10, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 8, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 90ZB0025

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: Fully de-identified datasets may be shared with other researchers in the future.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No