If The Survival Guide computer program with
its counseling insights is better than the Marriage
and Military Life inventory, why did PlainTec publish the inventory
separately?
When the Marriage and Military Life inventory was
first published years ago, many counselors and chaplains found that it was an
inexpensive tool (compared to civilian marriage inventories that cost between
$35.00 and $50.00) that addressed both the major areas of married life and the
unique circumstances of military life (e.g., deployments). Also, because these
military professionals recognized that a number of service members were not
coming to them for marriage counseling because of their concern for privacy,
they wanted a tool that their "troops" could take and self-grade in
the privacy of their homes. In addition to strengthening married couples
in their love for one another, the professionals also discovered that between
20% and 25% of dating personnel between the ages of 18 and 23 who
completed a Marriage and Military Life
inventory changed their minds about getting married. When these service members
married in their mid-twenties vice their late teens or early 20s, their chances
for becoming divorce statistics were significantly reduced.