RQ: Relationship Intelligence: Introduction
Concern about teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, teen violence and drug use has led to the development of many excellent health education programs, yet these are often criticized for talking more about what students shouldn’t do than about what they could or should be doing in a positive sense.

The newly released Free Teens RQ: Relationship Intelligence responds to this criticism by putting forth a positive vision of healthy relationships, in three sections: Self Leadership, Interpersonal Relationships, and Community Leadership.

RQ: Relationship Intelligence brings together the insights of science, literature and psychology to guide students through such issues of friendship, family, stages of intimacy and love, male/female differences, dealing with anger and other emotions, core identity, communication skills, the benefits and pitfalls of marriage, and understanding and mastering the culture.

The curriculum uses an interactive approach including “self-inventory” exercises and student journal questions for personal reflection. It calls upon the power of stories by drawing on selections of past and present authors including E. B. White, Tolstoy, O’Henry, and Stephen Covey, contemporary song writers and heartrending confessions in letters to Ann Landers.

Click on any link below to read an introduction to the curriculum chapter.

Part One: Relationships
  1. Friendship
  2. Exploring (Family) Relationships
  3. Initiation Rites

Part Two: Personal Leadership
  1. Understanding Your Core Identity
  2. Luck, Fate or Choice?
  3. Attitudes, Habits, and Character = Destiny
  4. Dealing with Anger and other Emotions

Part Three: Interpersonal Relationships
  1. Male and Female
  2. 5 Star Sexuality
  3. Stages of Intimacy: Attraction and Infatuation
  4. Stages of Intimacy: Connection
  5. Stages of Intimacy: Caretaking
  6. What’s Your Price Tag?
  7. Marriage

Part Four: Community Leadership
  1. Comprehending the Culture
  2. Synergy
  3. Community Leadership

In September, 2000, the Institute for American Values published a review of ten curricula for teens on marriage and relationships called Hungry Hearts: Evaluating the New Curricula for Teens on Marriage and Relationships.

The RQ: Relationship Intelligence curriculum was described as one of the “top three curricula” on marriage and relationships in the country. Following are selections from the review by Dana Mack, associate scholar at the Institute for American Values:

“RQ: Relationship Intelligence is the only evaluated curriculum that offers students a direct argument, well grounded in social science evidence, that marriage genuinely does matter, for lovers, children and society. It also blends conflict resolution skills with excerpts from literature to convey the message that sex without union is empty, and that marriage is where union can be most complete.”

Does RQ have a marriage focus? Grade: A.

“RQ consistently relates issues of relationship skills, character development and teen sexual abstinence to the goal of successful marriage.”

Does RQ convey to students that marriage is beneficial and important? Grade A.

“RQ provides a clear marriage vision, portraying marriage as the key to personal growth in love, intimacy, and sexual satisfaction. This program also emphasizes that marriage is a key social institution protecting adults, children and communities. Overall, RQ makes a stronger, more explicit case for marriage than any of the other curricula reviewed.”
 
 
 
 
 
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