Professional Responses to Government - Endorsed Premarital Counseling

This paper presents preliminary findings about the manner in which public policies that promote premarital counseling impact professionals who conduct premarital counseling. The purpose of this paper is to describe findings from a survey of premarital counseling providers in a state in which the government endorses premarital counseling. A total of 194 premarital counseling providers described their responses to their state government‟s endorsement of premarital counseling. Results indicated that a majority of providers held a favorable opinion of this policy, although a number of providers held either unfavorable opinions of the policy or were uncertain about the policy‟s effectiveness. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.