Local Evaluation Findings from the 2020 Cohort of Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Grant Recipients

Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) grant recipients support families by offering services for adult individuals, adult couples, and youth to increase knowledge of healthy relationships and strengthen skills such as communication and co-parenting. HMRE grant recipients typically provide group-based workshops focused on relationship skills, parenting, and economic self-sufficiency, and many also offer optional individual services such as case management, employment coaching, and financial literacy. HMRE programs can also conduct local evaluations, working with an independent evaluator to study program implementation and participant outcomes, to build evidence and support continuous improvement. This brief summarizes the findings of the 39 local evaluations conducted by the 2020 cohort of HMRE grant recipients.

This brief presents selected results from local evaluations of HMRE grant recipients serving adults and youth. It provides an overview of the services offered by HMRE programs and the design of local evaluations, summarizes findings across four outcome domains (relationship quality, economic stability, mental health, and parenting), and describes common evaluation successes and challenges. The brief concludes with key takeaways and considerations for future learning in the field.

• Nearly 30,000 participants were included across the 39 local evaluations, including adult individuals, adult couples, and youth.

• Evaluations most frequently examined relationship quality outcomes , and evidence was most concentrated in this domain; findings in the economic stability, mental health, and parenting domains were more limited.

• Seven impact evaluations reported statistically significant findings in at least one outcome domain with effect sizes in the small-to-medium range. Most descriptive evaluations reported at least one statistically significant finding, most often in the relationship quality domain, followed by mental health and economic stability domains; few studies examined parenting outcomes.

• Many practical considerations for strengthening services and future learning emerged, such as maintaining participant engagement through flexible delivery options, using engaging facilitation techniques, and providing supports such as child care or scheduling accommodations. For evaluations, collaboration between the program and evaluator is essential to secure sufficient program recruitment and enrollment of participants. Grant recipients should ensure program content tested by the evaluation is offered in a substantial dose and well-implemented to maximize the chances of detecting impacts.

HMRE grant recipients completed either an impact evaluation (12 randomized controlled trials and 3 quasi-experimental designs) or a descriptive evaluation (24 studies). Across evaluations, outcome measures were grouped into four domains: relationship quality, economic stability, mental health, and parenting. Impact studies typically assessed outcomes several months after program completion and compared results between study groups, while descriptive studies commonly measured outcomes at program exit and examined how participant outcomes changed over time.

Angela Valdovinos D’Angelo, Scott B. Richman, and Avery Hennigar (2026). “Local Evaluation Findings from the 2020 Cohort of Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Grant Recipients.” OPRE Report #2026-018. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.