Family Life Education - Definition

Definition

One of the first professional organizations in the U.S. for Family Life Educators, the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR), explains Family Life Education this way: "Family Life Education is the educational effort to strengthen individual and family life through a family perspective. The objective of Family Life Education is to enrich and improve the quality of individual and family life." Parenting classes, pre-marriage education, marriage enrichment programs, and family financial planning courses are a few examples of this human development profession. These formal programs are a relatively recent phenomenon. However, Family Life Education has existed informally throughout history — with marriage and child-rearing counsel passed from generation to generation as well as by written information in ancient writings, mythology and religious scripture.

In a seminal work in the field, by Margaret Arcus, Jay Schvaneveldt and J. Joel Moss, the Handbook of Family Life Education offers several definitions by scholars as the field has evolved over time, dating back to 1962. Unlike Family Therapy, Family Life Education works on a prevention model — teaching families to enrich family life and to prevent problems before they occur. Family Therapy intervenes primarily after problems set-in. Research from the Rand Corporation (from Rand research report Early Childhood Interventions: Proven Results, Future Promise) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (in its report Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return) shows that family problems are less damaging for people — and less expensive for society — when they can be tackled by prevention. Family Life Education recognizes that all families can benefit from education and enrichment programs — not only those experiencing difficulties.