Government-supported relationship education has provided resources for inclusion of economically vulnerable and ethnically diverse participants; however, many grantees and programs struggled to retain couples in longitudinal studies, which has likely influenced study effects and threatened internal validity. In the present study, we assessed 1,056 couples’ baseline relationship satisfaction and intent-to-attend their next scheduled visit while participating in a randomized controlled trial of relationship education and evaluated the predictive ability of their responses to remain in the six-month study. We conducted actor-partner interdependence models for couples, using a probit cross-lagged regression with a structural equation modeling framework, to test the dyadic influence of intent-to-attend on future couple attendance. We also examined the influence of higher or lower baseline relationship satisfaction between partners and group assignment (treatment or wait-list control) on attendance. Intent-to-attend scores were associated with attendance for couples at the one-month follow-up, and early attendance was the biggest predictor of later attendance. Additionally, baseline intent-to-attend scores predicted later intent-to-attend scores for all follow-up time points. However, we found no partner effects, and no effects for the influence of baseline relationship satisfaction or group assignment. We discuss practical suggestions for including intent-to-attend in future studies, relationship education programming, and general therapy practice.

中文翻译：

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在以社区为基础的关系教育中使用参与意向预测出勤率

政府支持的关系教育为经济弱势和种族多元化的参与者提供了资源；然而，许多受资助者和项目难以在纵向研究中留住夫妻，这可能影响了研究效果并威胁到内部有效性。在本研究中，我们评估了 1,056 对夫妇的基线关系满意度和参加下一次预定访问的意愿，同时参加了一项关系教育的随机对照试验，并评估了他们在为期六个月的研究中的反应的预测能力。我们使用带有结构方程建模框架的概率交叉滞后回归为夫妻进行了演员-伴侣相互依赖模型，以测试参加意向对未来夫妻出勤率的二元影响。我们还检查了合作伙伴和小组分配（治疗或等待名单控制）之间较高或较低的基线关系满意度对出勤率的影响。在 1 个月的随访中，参加意向得分与夫妇的出席率相关，早期出席率是后期出席率的最大预测因素。此外，基线意向参加分数预测了所有后续时间点的后期意向参加分数。然而，我们没有发现合作伙伴效应，也没有发现基线关系满意度或小组分配的影响。我们讨论了在未来研究、关系教育计划和一般治疗实践中包括意向参加的实用建议。