Our own data
Observatory: what the assessments show
Quick answer
The observatory publishes the aggregated distribution across the nine areas the 3CORD assessment measures. It stores no individual response and no personal data: the server only adds counters. It is not a representative sample of the population, but a description of who looks for marriage help.
Distribution by area
Loading the published aggregate…
What is measured
The assessment covers nine areas with two statements each, answered on a five-point scale. Each area ends with a score from 0 to 10. These are the nine:
- Communication
- Conflict
- Connection
- Trust
- Intimacy
- Forgiveness
- Money
- Family
- Spiritual life
The questionnaire version is recorded with every contribution. If the questions change, the version changes and aggregates from different versions are never mixed.
What is not collected
- No individual response. The server only increments counters: there is no row per person because none is written.
- No personal data. No email, no name, no IP, no cookie and no session identifier.
- No free-text field. The endpoint rejects any field it did not expect.
- The safety question, never. Anyone reporting fear in their relationship sees help, not an invitation to contribute data.
Contributing is optional and explicit: the box starts unticked and the result appears the same without it.
Limits, stated by us
This is what has to be read before citing any figure on this page.
- Self-selected sample. These are people who were looking for marriage help and chose to answer. It does not describe marriages in general and must not be used for that.
- Self-report. It measures how someone describes their relationship at one moment, not how the relationship is. The two spouses usually score differently.
- Not a validated instrument. The assessment was designed to point a couple toward an area, not as a psychometric scale. It does not diagnose and does not predict.
- Language and channel bias. People arriving in Spanish and in English arrive through different queries, so the two samples are not directly comparable.
How to cite it
The data are free to use. We only ask that the limitation travel with the figure, because a percentage from this observatory without its context says something different from what it measures.
Suggested format: 3CORD Observatory, marriage connection assessment, self-selected sample of people seeking help, with the update date shown above.
Frequently asked questions
What do you store from my assessment?
Nothing individual. If you tick the box, the server adds one to a counter per area and per score, and nothing else. There is no row with your result anywhere, because none is written. No email, no name, no IP and no text fields.
Is the safety answer sent?
No, never. That question is not part of the contribution, and anyone answering it yes goes straight to the help screen, with no invitation to contribute data.
Why are no figures published yet?
Because there is not enough sample. We set a minimum of 500 responses per language before publishing a single figure. An average computed on forty responses is not data, it is noise with decimals.
Is this a representative sample of marriages?
No, and it never will be. It is a self-selected sample of people who were looking for marriage help and chose to take an assessment. That makes it useful for describing who arrives, and invalid for talking about the general population.
Can these data be cited?
Yes. They are published for that, with the methodology and the limits on the same page. We only ask that the limitation be cited next to the figure: a percentage from this observatory without its context says something different from what it measures.