Whether It's Texting, Chatting, or Face-to-Face: Communication Remains Essential to Healthy Relationships and Marriages

Whether It's Texting, Chatting, or Face-to-Face: Communication Remains Essential to Healthy Relationships and Marriages

WASHINGTON, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Relationships are changing. Americans are more likely than in the past to cohabit, divorce, marry late, or not marry at all. Among U.S. born 30- to 44-year-olds, 60 percent were married in 2007 (compared with 84 percent in 1970).*

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This downward trend in the rate of marriage simultaneously exists with another trend: women and men increasingly view each other as equal partners -- educational, economic, and emotional peers. This positive trend away from relationships with a "junior partner" makes communication essential to maintaining a healthy relationship.

The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (link to TwoOfUs.org) has produced a new television public service announcement (link to :30 PSA) to underscore that while the ways in which we communicate have changed dramatically over time, good communication remains fundamental to our relationships.

Viewers are encouraged to visit the website, www.TwoOfUs.org, which provides proven tools and tactics to enhance and strengthen relationships. This interactive website enables visitors to engage their peers through a free online community, as well as offers a wealth of information from marriage and relationship experts.

"Good communication is active," says Mary Myrick, National Healthy Marriage Resource Center Project Director. "Providing positive feedback and support to your partner goes a long way toward building a foundation where honest communication can be respectfully conveyed."

Key TwoOfUs.org offerings include:
-- Compatibility: Determine whether you and your partner are really
compatible
-- Communication:
-- Avoid committing a communication foul. When two people go from
speaking and listening respectfully to trading put downs, blaming,
and sometimes, attempting to punish their partner with silence,
they commit communication fouls.
-- Learn the difference between talking and communicating. Active
listening is an essential part of healthy communication and a
learned skill.
-- Emotional Mastery: Learn the secret to incredible relating.

The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center is a clearinghouse that provides high quality, balanced, and timely information and resources on healthy marriage and relationships. NHMRC is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, Grant 90-FH-0001.

*"Women, Men and the New Economics of Marriage," by Richard Fry and D'Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center, January 19, 2010.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100315/MM61711
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.comVideo: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/twoofus/42321
Source: National Healthy Marriage Resource Center

CONTACT: Wendy Rueda, +1-202-862-1257, wrueda@icfi.com

Web Site: http://www.twoofus.org/

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