Austin Marriage Project

What We Do

The Austin Marriage Project is a series of long-term research studies aimed at understanding how couples grow and change during their early years of marriage. This research is conducted through the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Texas at Austin and is partially funded by the National Science Foundation. 

Please visit our Results page for more information about our findings.

BACKGROUND information

The early years of marriage are a time of great excitement as couples build a new life together. However, with this excitement comes the challenge of learning how to navigate the ups and downs of married life.

The Austin Marriage Project is a federally grant-funded, longitudinal study of marriage being conducted at the University of Texas at Austin. It is designed to identify the factors that help couples create strong and healthy marriages. In other words, what factors are most important to consider when trying to understand why marriages succeed?

The answer to this question is vitally important for improving marital intervention programs and helping future generations of couples to have more fulfilling relationships. 

OUR PARTICIPANTS

Our 255 participating couples began the study within the first 6 months of their first marriages and had no children at that time. Now, some have been married for over 2 years and we more than 40 Austin Marriage Project babies born or expected to arrive soon!