Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education for High School Students: The Longer-Term Impacts of Relationship Smarts PLUS in Georgia

This report is the third in a series on the implementation and impacts of an HMRE program delivered to students in two Atlanta-area high schools. Trained facilitators from More Than Conquerors Inc., a nonprofit social service agency near Atlanta, delivered the Relationships Smarts PLUS (RQ+) Version 3.0 curriculum in health classes for primarily 9th grade students. The impact study compared groups of students who were offered two different versions of the curriculum—the full 12-lesson, 18 hour version and a shortened 8-lesson, 12 hour version developed for this study—against a control group of students who were not offered any HMRE programming.

This report documents the study methods and presents program impacts based on follow-up data collected around three years after students enrolled in the study. Earlier reports document program impacts one year after study enrollment and provide detailed information on the program’s design and implementation. This study was conducted by Mathematica and Public Strategies as part of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation for the Administration of Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Three years after study enrollment, students offered the full RQ+ curriculum and students in the control group reported similar levels on seven outcomes related to their relationship experiences, quality, and skills. However, we were unable to precisely measure program impacts for two additional outcomes related to relationship quality—students’ happiness with their current relationship and their satisfaction with their current relationship—because these outcomes were available for only a small and select portion of the full sample. In addition, in checking the robustness of our findings, we found some evidence suggesting that the program had impacts three years later for girls, but not boys.
• Three years after study enrollment, we found only one statistically significant impact when comparing students offered the full, 12-lesson version of RQ+ to students offered the shortened, 8-lesson version of RQ+. Specifically, students offered the full curriculum were less likely than students offered the shortened curriculum to report having sex without using a condom in the last three months. However, this impact did not remain statistically significant when we used other estimation strategies or when we adjusted for the total number of significance tests conducted across the study’s three research groups.

During two consecutive school years, 1,862 students from 61 health classes in two high schools received permission from a parent or guardian to participate. The study team randomly assigned each health class to one of three research groups: (1) a group that was offered the full 12-lesson, 18 hour RQ+ curriculum, (2) a group that was offered the shortened 8-lesson, 12 hour RQ+ curriculum, and (3) a control group that was not offered any HMRE programming. For the impact analysis presented in this report, we used data from a three-year follow-up survey administered to students in all three research groups to compare students on seven outcomes related to their relationship experiences, quality, and skills.

This study contributes to a growing research literature on the impacts of HMRE programs for high school students and provides guidance for providers seeking to increase the likelihood that programs have consistent, sustained impacts for all students. The results of this study suggest that current program models may not be intensive enough to have a lasting impact on outcomes for all students. Therefore, providers may need to devote more time to HMRE programming or sustain programming over a longer period. In addition, providers should reflect on the characteristics and motivations of youth served by their programs and consider tailoring their programs to better address the needs, questions, and experiences of their intended population. 

Future research studies should consider the right time to measure the impacts of HMRE programs for high school students. Although measuring impacts late in high school may be appropriate for outcomes that are relevant for all or most students in the study, such as their relationship skills, attitudes, or certain behaviors, studies may require a much longer follow-up period to assess impacts on the quality of students’ romantic relationships.

Future studies should also assess the longer-term impacts of a wider variety of HMRE programs delivered to diverse groups of youth. Even though the present study examined a widely-used HMRE curriculum implemented in a typical high school setting, the findings are not necessarily generalizable to all school-based HMRE programs. HMRE programs for youth use a variety of curricula and service delivery approaches to serve youth with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and identities. More research is needed—including smaller formative studies and larger impact studies—to understand the most effective ways to design and implement programs for different groups of youth.

Alamillo, Julia, and Elizabeth Doran (2022). Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education for High School Students: The Longer-Term Impacts of Relationship Smarts PLUS in Georgia, OPRE Report # 2022-325, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.