Pre-Marital Counseling: Three Years' Experience of a Unique Service

Abstract

Pre-marital counseling to couples in which at least one partner is under eighteen years of age has been offered by social workers of the Los Angeles County Community Health Service since Novvember, 1970. The service developed out of the conviction that the guidance provided by pre-marital counseling offers an opportunity to prevent or at least reduce future marital and family difficulties. Introduction of the program followed the signing into law of Assembly Bill 402 by California's Governor Ronald E. Reagan on July 10, 1970. With the passage of this law California became the first and, at the time of writing, the only state to provide that minors (persons under eighteen years of age) applying for a marriage license may be required to participate in pre-marital counseling concerning social, economic, and personal responsibility incident to marriage. This stipulation is in addition to the previously existing requirements of parental and court consent. The law does not define counseling, provide funds to enable agencies to offer this service, or make the requirement mandatory throughout the State. It permits enforcement at the discretion of the Superior Court in each of the 58 counties of California. Testimony at hearings on California