An Exploratory Analysis of Conflict in African Immigrant and African American Marriages

Problem There has been a high level of marital conflict in immigrant families from patriarchal cultures. There are negative attitudes toward women that contribute to couple conflict. Coupled with this are issues relating to immigration challenges that confront marriage stability among immigrant couples in North America. In the same vein, African American couples experience conflicts that militate against the stability of their marriages. Most of these marital upheavals stem from historical antecedents relating to this ethnic group, as well as the societal dialectics confronting them. By and large, regarding couple conflict, a better understanding of the challenges facing African immigrant couples, and the impact of the African heritage on African American couples, are germane to this study. Method This was a non-experimental comparative exploratory study of conflict in African immigrant and African American marriages in terms of their scores on the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) and its subscales. This involved administering a combined questionnaire comprised of the CTS2, Attitude Toward Women Scale (AWS), and a short immigration questionnaire specific to African immigrants. The target populations for this research work fell into two groups: African immigrant and African American ethnic groups living in North America. A One-Way MANCOVA was conducted to determine the effect of ethnicity on each of the five conflict tactics (negotiation: self and partner; physical assault: self and partner; injury: self and partner; psychological aggression: self and partner; and sexual coercion: self and partner) after controlling for attitude towards women. A Pearson bivariate correlation analysis was used to test whether there was a significant bivariate relationship between attitude towards women and the total score of conflict tactics self and total partner. Analyses were carried out using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics were used to describe the responses of African immigrants to the Immigrant Questionnaire. Results In testing for the hypotheses, the main effect of ethnicity [Wilks’ Lambda = .868, F (5, 171) = 5.192, sig. = .000, multivariate eta squared = .132] indicated a significant effect on the combined conflict tactics. The covariate attitude towards women had a significant influence on the combined dependent variables [Wilks’ Lambda = .864, F (5, 171) = 5.368, sig. = .000, multivariate eta squared = .136, power = .99]. Univariate ANOVA results indicated that ethnicity had a significantly small effect on psychological aggression (self) [F (1,175) = 8.395, sig. = .004, partial eta squared = .046, power = .82], sexual coercion (self) [F (1,175) = 6.888, sig. = .009, partial eta squared = .038, power = .74]. The covariate attitude towards women had a significant effect on negotiation (self) [F (1,175) = 6.133, sig. = .014, partial eta squared = .034, power = .69], physical assault (self) [F (1,175) = 9.597, sig. = .002, partial eta squared = .052, power = .87], injury (self) [F (1,175) = 10.898, sig. = .001, partial eta squared = .059, power = .91], and sexual coercion (self) [F (1,175) = 11.960, sig. = .001, partial eta squared = . 064, power = .93]. Similarly, the main effect of ethnicity [Wilks’ Lambda = .895, F (5, 181) = 4.246, sig. = .001, multivariate eta squared = .105, power = .96] indicated a significant effect on the combined conflict tactics. The covariate attitude towards women had a significant influence on the combined dependent variables [Wilks’ Lambda = .916, F (5, 181) = 3.131, sig. = .007, multivariate eta squared = .084, power = .89]. Univariate ANOVA results indicated that ethnicity had a significantly small effect on psychological aggression (partner) [F (1,185) = 4.371, sig. = .038, partial eta squared = .023, power = .55], sexual coercion (partner) [F (1,185) = 4.010, sig. = .047, partial eta squared = .021, power = .52]. The covariate attitude towards women had a significant effect on physical assault (partner) [F (1,185) = 6.790, sig. = .010, partial eta squared = .035, power = .74], injury (partner) [F (1,185) = 6.499, sig. = .012, partial eta squared = .034, power = .72], and sexual coercion (partner) [F (1,185) = 9.946, sig. = .002, partial eta squared = .051, power = .88]. It is further revealed that there is no significant correlation between attitude towards women and total CT scores (self) [Pearson r = -.02, sig. = .762, N = 178], with related results showing that there was no significant correlation coefficient between attitude towards women and total CT scores (partner) [Pearson r = -.06, sig. = .417, N = 188]. The results of the immigration questionnaire showed that immigration and acculturation issues had a significant effect on the marriages of African immigrants in the US. Conclusions This study has established the reality that marital conflict is ubiquitous. The pertinent question is this: How do couples react to conflict? The reaction of couples to conflict determines the outcome to conflicts. It should be well noted that because the quality and stability of marriage and family lives are especially important in building and maintaining a healthy society, it is, therefore, to reduce conflict and violence in homes and among couples. We must work towards establishing a good community with a minimal level of violence. The task now is to underscore the point that families should be permeated by love and nurturing thoughtfulness, as opposed to the horrific psychological abuse, battering, and killing that are a tragic part of couple conflict and domestic violence. Through the cooperation of everyone; the intervention of marriage and family resource persons and counselors; and through the assistance of national governments, national organizations, and different international agencies, brilliant, practical, and meaningful approaches to bringing about the prevention and control of conflict and violence in marriage relationships can be engendered.