Concerns over the high incidence of divorce and domestic violence have prompted many Australian churches and some nonchurch agencies to offer premarriage education programs (PMEPs) to couples planning to marry. Unlike past PMEPs, which were often didactic, Australia's present-day PMEPs tend to be learner-centered programs that encourage participants to reflect on their relationships and marriage and develop the skills needed to build marriages. In the 1970s, educators and coordinators of Australia's PMEPs formed two professional associations to protect, promote, and improve premarriage education (PME). In 1991, the Australian Attorney General's Department funded a comprehensive evaluation of PME. Nearly 1,000 Australian couples who had participated in PMEPs during the first quarter of 1992 were surveyed regarding their views of marriage and PME and the effects of participation in a PMEP. The survey results were synthesized into the following categories: teaching about marriage; dimensions of premarriage education; PMEPs in the 1990s; demographic characteristics and attitudes of PMEP educators and participants; the effects of participation in PME; and challenges facing PME. (Forty-four tables/figures are included. Appended are the survey instruments and tables summarizing the survey results. Contains 56 references.) (MN)