Premarital education is an important component of health education and health promotion.
Premarital education has been shown to provide information, promote mental and physical wellbeing,
and increase a sense of marital satisfaction and marital life. Among the national religious
Jewish population, premarital education is referred to as “Guidance Classes for Brides and
Grooms.”
Research in this area of study and its implications does exist, though there is no found
literature or research concerning this topic in terms of the national religious Jewish population.
Cultural differences make it difficult to generalize from one population to another. The present
research objectives include the degree of correlation between information received and
perception of the importance of premarital education information to marital and sexual
satisfaction in the national religious Jewish population.
In addition, an examination of the gender differences concerning the received premarital education and its implications as a mediating factor to the correlation between premarital information and the perception of importance of
premarital education and marital and sexual satisfaction. Premarital course content was examined
as well. The study included a convenience sample of 119 subjects, 47 men and 72 women from
the national religious Jewish population of Israel who had been married 5 years or less, and had
participated in premarital education. The study instrument included a premarital education
background information tool, a questionnaire concerning details of the premarital education, and
a marital satisfaction questionnaire. Completion time was 25 minutes.
The findings showed a positive correlation between the perception of importance of information in pre-marriage
education and marital satisfaction, as well as in obtaining information in premarital education
and sexual satisfaction for the Jewish national religious sector. No gender differences were found
in information received in the premarital education. Gender was not found as a mediating factor
between information received and perception of importance of the premarital education
information and sexual and marital satisfaction. Concurrently, it can be assumed by the findings
that pre-marital education contributes positively to the individual from varying perspectives,
from the physical –sexual angle/component to the emotional well being perspective.
The findings of the present study have the potential to contribute to the development of a premarital
core curriculum for the national religious Jewish sector in conjunction with the knowledge base
of nursing which includes medical information, biology, physiology, pathology, and mental
health in the area of sexual education. People are a holistic tapestry of different needs. The
inclusion of sexual education as part of premarital education could increase both physical and
emotional well being and improve the overall health of the individual and his family. In addition,
nurses could serve as an independent professional source for issues of sexual dysfunction, as
well as providing professional, evidence based sexual health information. Further research is
necessary to study these important issues in other populations. Continued research of the present
population concerning the details of the curricular content and teaching strategies is also
necessary to develop and improve the premarital education of the national religious Jewish
population.