Government “Healthy Marriage” programs should focus less on the benefits of marriage and more on helping couples to cope.

Since the early 2000s, the federal government has spent nearly $1 billion on the Healthy Marriage Initiative which has the aim of strengthening economic mobility via marriage. Jennifer M. Randles observed marriage education classes closely, interviewing participants and training as a marriage educator. She finds that while healthy marriage policy promotes the idea that marital commitment is a bulwark against poverty, those on low-incomes believe that marriage represents the culmination of prosperity – not a means of achieving it. She writes that relationship policies would likely be more useful if they focused less on the benefits of marriage and more on how economic stress can take an emotional toll on relationships.