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Marital quality of African American and white partners in interracial couples
Author(s) -
Leslie Leigh A.,
Letiecq Bethany L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
personal relationships
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1475-6811
pISSN - 1350-4126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2004.00098.x
Subject(s) - pride , white (mutation) , psychology , race (biology) , african american , quality (philosophy) , identity (music) , social psychology , marital status , demography , gender studies , sociology , political science , population , biochemistry , chemistry , ethnology , philosophy , physics , epistemology , acoustics , law , gene
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.