Cultural intersections: a qualitative inquiry into the experience of Asian Indian-White interracial couples

The purpose of this study was to examine the "lived experience" of Asian Indian (AI)-White couples in interracial marriages. Ten highly educated AI-White professional couples were individually interviewed about their subjective experience of being in an interracial marriage, the challenges and strengths of this marriage, and the potential role of culture in their marriages. Data were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research methodology. Results indicated that the couples' marital experiences were influenced by a complex intersection of ecosystemic factors with significant psychological impacts. These findings highlight shortcomings in drawing simplistic conclusions regarding the success or failure of an interracial marriage and have important implications for theory, research, and clinical practice.     

“We Told You that's How They Are”: Responses To White Women in Abusive Intimate Relationships with Men of Color

The urging by interracial couples to be accepted as “normal” couples may present as challenging if problems arise in the relationship; especially if those “problems” are of an abusive or violent nature. Drawing on semi-structured, in-depth interviews we analyze the experiences of White women in abusive intimate relationships with men of color. We query the struggles of the women negotiating these relationships and explore the responses the women receive by family, friends, the general public, and workers in the criminal justice system and social and medical services. We argue that White women abused by men of color face additional challenges because of outsiders' disapproving views of the interracial nature of the relationships.     

Interracial Relationships in Hawaii

SUMMARY

Given the increase in rates of intermarriages, it is vital that we understand the issues and benefits of interracial relationships and the ways in which therapists might assist interracial couples. Our focus in this article is on interracial relationships in Hawaii. Because of its history of promoting interracial ties and its plural character, Hawaii is, in many ways, a unique setting for interracial relationships. At the same time, there are relational issues, benefits, and needs faced by both mainstream U.S. interracial couples and interracial couples in Hawaii. There are a variety of therapeutic interventions that could be used to help interracial couples. This chapter examines the factors in Hawaii's past and present that contribute to its particular history of interracial relationships, the common challenges that face interracial couples, personal and relational benefits of interracial relationships, and the therapeutic interventions from which interracial couples may benefit.     

Strengthening Connections in Interracial Marriages Through Pre-Marital Inventories: A Critical Literature Review

The importance of preparing for marriage is apparent when one considers the consequences of marital distress and the high rate of divorce. Pre-marital inventories help couples’ prepare for marriage by identifying their personal risks and resilience profiles as well as other factors that may influence their marriage. Research demonstrates the benefits of pre-marital inventories; however, there is little research on their effectiveness for interracial couples. In this review challenges facing interracial couples are identified, the benefits of using eco-systems theory in the creation of pre-marital inventories are discussed, and suggestions on how pre-marital inventories can become more applicable to interracial couples are offered.     

Predicting participation in premarital prevention programs: the health belief model and social norms

The development of effective programs to prevent marital dysfunction has been a recent focus for marital researchers, but the effective dissemination of these programs to engaged couples has received relatively little attention. The purpose of this study is to determine which factors predict couples' participation in premarital counseling. Predictive factors were derived from the health prevention literature, with a particular focus on the health belief model (HBM). Couples' beliefs and attitudes about premarital counseling were assessed at least six months before their wedding, and participation was assessed after their wedding. Results indicate that the strongest predictors of couples' participation were couples' perceptions of barriers to counseling and whether they had counseling recommended to them. These variables predicted participation even after controlling for important demographic variables. Recommendations for recruiting engaged couples for premarital counseling are made based on the findings.     

Gender Dilemmas and Myth in the Construction of Marital Bargains: Issues for Marital Therapy

Marital therapists are regularly confronted with issues of equality and fairness when working with couples. This article examines the social-contextual factors that influence couples' negotations about these issues. A common solution for couples, "the myth of equality," is identified, together with the processes that maintain it. The role of the therapist in relation to gender equality is addressed.     

Marital quality of African American and white partners in interracial couples

In light of the growing number of interracial marriages in this country, the present study set out to examine the relative strength of one's racial identity, social support, and experience of discrimination in predicting interracial marriage quality. A total of 76 interracial couples (52 African American male/White female and 24 African American female/White male) participated in the study by completing mail surveys. Results revealed that for African American partners, and to a lesser extent White partners, racial identity was the strongest predictor of marital quality. Partners who had pride in their race but were also accepting of other races and cultures experienced higher marital quality. These findings are discussed in light of the literature that suggests interracial couples often minimize the relevance of race in their relationships.     

Solution-focused Couples Therapy Groups: An Empirical Study

The professional literature contains numerous theoretical and case study articles regarding the development and use of solution-focused therapy. However, as with many models of systems-oriented therapy in use with couples, very little has been subjected to empirical investigation. This project was designed to make a contribution to the empirical literature regarding the effectiveness of solution-focused therapy in use with couples' groups. This study utilized pre-test comparisons of treatment and comparison groups, and examined pre- to post-test changes in the scores of the treatment group couples. Twenty-three treatment group couples participated in a six-week solution-focused couples therapy (SFCT) group. A separate group of thirteen couples served as a comparison group. The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) was used to assess changes in the couples' relationships. Scores on the Marital Status Inventory (MSI), as a pre-test measure indicating the couples' likelihood of divorce, indicated no significant differences between groups. The remaining analyses revealed significant improvement in DAS scores. Self-reports from the couples involved indicate improvement in a variety of areas after completing the six-week solution-focused couples group therapy process.     

Relationship stigma and Black-White interracial marital satisfaction: the mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being

Although the percentage of Black-White interracial marriage continues to increase in the United States, research is limited related to the impact of stigma on these couples and the processes that influence their responses to negative racial experiences. In the current study, the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model was used as a theoretical foundation to investigate the relationship between stigma and couple satisfaction among Black-White interracially married couples, along with the potential mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being. A community sample of 180 interracially married individuals responded to surveys assessing their experiences of stigma due to being a member of an interracial couple, religious/spiritual well-being, and couple satisfaction. The analysis revealed that relationship stigma was negatively associated with couple satisfaction, and religious/spiritual well-being mediated the relationship between these two variables. To conclude, recommendations for intervention and prevention in the lives of Black-White interracial couples are offered.     

Therapists' Perspectives on Working with Interracial Couples

SUMMARY

This paper is based on interviews with seven marriage and family therapists (AAMFT Clinical Members) on their experiences of providing therapy to interracial couples in the course of their private practices. The interviews were conducted by the author as part of a masters thesis project. Interracial couples may frequently present for therapy with a variety of generic couples' issues and concerns. However, therapists often find that underlying these more generic concerns are issues related to the ethnic, racial, and cultural differences that the partners bring to the relationship. This paper focuses on the historical context of intermarriage, specific concerns and issues that interracial couples experience in their relationships, and on the experiences of therapists providing therapeutic services to this diverse and challenging client population.     

The Role of Creativity in Marriage and Family Therapy Practice: A National Online Study

The purpose of this study, using an online methodology, was to investigate therapists' perceptions of the role of creativity in couples' and family therapy. Along with completing a quantitative measure assessing creativity in their work, participants responded to four open-ended questions which addressed the meaning of creativity, characteristics of a creative family therapist, some creative interventions they have used with couples and families, and barriers to their own creativity as a family therapist. A total of 142 marriage and family therapists in 36 states in the United States participated. The findings shed light on the unique importance of creativity in couples and family treatment.     

The effects of cystic fibrosis on couples: marital satisfaction, emotions, and coping strategies

An earlier diagnosis and better overall multidisciplinary care enable people suffering from Cystic Fibrosis (CF) to have a life expectancy of 40. Consequently, new populations and questions about the development of the life of couples have arisen. This study by questionnaires takes a first look at marital adjustment, anxiety, depression, and emotion focused, social support focused, and problem focused coping strategies in 16 CF patients and their partners. As a whole, the couples' marital adjustment level was good; it was higher for men who were patients than men who were partners, and vice versa for women. Anxiety was high for at least one partner in 10 of the couples; depression, for at least one partner in seven of them. The participants seem to use coping strategies to a lesser extent than the general population. The results are discussed in terms of how the quality of life as a couple with one partner suffering from CF is affected by the proper mutual adjustment of the partners.     

Concerns about Appearing Prejudiced Get Under the Skin: Stress Responses to Interracial Contact in the Moment and across Time

Many White Americans are concerned about appearing prejudiced. How these concerns affect responses during actual interracial interactions, however, remains understudied. The present work examines stress responses to interracial contact-both in the moment, during interracial interactions (Study 1), and over time as individuals have repeated interracial contact (Study 2). Results of Study 1 revealed that concerns about appearing prejudiced were associated with heightened stress responses during interracial encounters (Study 1). White participants concerned about appearing prejudiced exhibited significant increases in cortisol "stress hormone" levels as well as increases in anxious behavior during interracial but not same-race contact. Participants relatively unconcerned about appearing prejudiced did not exhibit these stress responses. Study 2 examined stress responses to interracial contact over an entire academic year. Results revealed that White participants exhibited shifts in cortisol diurnal rhythms on days after interracial contact. Moreover, participants' cortisol rhythms across the academic year, from fall to spring, were related to their concerns about appearing prejudiced and their interracial contact experiences. Taken together, these data offer the first evidence that chronic concerns about appearing prejudiced are related to short- and longer-term stress responses to interracial contact. Implications for life in diverse spaces are discussed.     

Negotiating couplehood: the process of resolving the December dilemma among interfaith couples.

Christmas forces interfaith couples to address questions concerning holiday observances. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the experience of the "December dilemma," that is, the experience of Christmas and Hanukah among couples in which one partner is Jewish. A qualitative design based on the continuous comparison method of Grounded Theory analysis was used. Participants were solicited through interfaith couples' programs, referral, and snowballing. Unstructured interactive interviews of 22 couples were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed. The categories generated were: Ghosts of Christmas and Hanukah Past, Coming Together, and Holiday Observances as a Couple. The basic problem facing these couples was how to bridge religious backgrounds with differing holiday traditions in a way that integrated respect for each partner's needs, heritage, and identity. The basic social process of negotiating "couplehood," that is, moving from individuality to partnership emerged when mutual agreement could be reached to solve problems about how to celebrate the December holidays. The data indicated that exploration of the ways these couples managed the dilemmas created by the December holidays provided a window to how they negotiated other challenges in their relationships.     

Couple interaction: A study of the punctuation process

This study examined couples' punctuation of their own interactions. The association between causal explanations for the interactions on issues involving differences and the nature of relatedness (i.e., degree of distress) was the major purpose of the study. Punctuation was defined as a way of grouping sequences of interactions. Punctuational differneces were operationalized by measuring couples' causal explanations and attributions of responsibility concerning their own interactions. Twenty distressed and non-distressed couples, matched on age, income, education, and length of relationship, participated in an intensive 3-hour interview conducted at their homes. Two relationship measures to determine the degree of distress were administered. The interview involved: generating issues of important differences, improvisational role plays of interactions, responses to open-ended questions about self and other perspectives, and rankings of causal explanations and attributions of responsibility about the interactions. The results suggested that the nature of relatedness, as defined by degree of distress, was associated with the punctuation of interactions by the communicators, tentatively supporting the Watzlawicket al. (1967) metacommunicational axiom. The main finding was that distressed couples attributed responsibility to the mate rather than self, whereas in nondistressed douples responsibility was shared.This article is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The senior author is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco     

Same-sex couple perceptions of family support: a consensual qualitative study

Few studies have examined the family context in which same-sex couples negotiate their lives and relationships. Consensual qualitative research methods (Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997) were used to analyze 14 same-sex couples' conversations about family support. Couples perceived that their families are positively supportive, non-supportive, or ambivalent in their support. These perceptions led to positive or negative emotional reactions in the couple members and to specific coping. The majority of couples perceived that family support (or lack of support) had an effect on the quality of their couple relationship. No general or typical response strategies to lack of family of origin support emerged, suggesting a lack of models or norms for same-sex couples. The implications for psychotherapeutic interventions with same-sex couples are discussed.     

Theories About Black-White Interracial Marriage: A Clinical Perspective

Clinicians need to expose negative biases in theories about interracial relationships and direct the attention of couples and their families toward relationship strengths.     

Relationship control and interpersonal perception in marriage

The correlation between married couples' interpersonal perception and relationship control in communication was investigated. A normated, standardized and shortened version of Laing et al. 's Interpersonal Perception method (IPM) was used to measure interpersonal perception. The test contain three levels of perception, namely (1) direct perception of the relationship, (2) misunderstandings, and (3) disagreements about the relationship. The couples' relationship control was observed in three different situations. Previous studies have found the amount of one-upmanship in married couples to be associated with problems of interpersonal perception. Although different methods were applied in the present study, this finding was replicated to some extent. Additionally, the results indicate that the more the couples communicated to each other that they both had the right to control the relationship, the less problems they had in interpersonal perception. The results also strongly suggest that couples communicating in egocentric and self-disqualifying ways perceive their marriage as less satisfying, and they also perceive each other's feelings and behaviours less accurately than those who have little or no such deviant communication.