Interracial Couples, Relationship Satisfaction, and Health

• In Event: 50261 - Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Kinship Networks, Health & Well-being

Abstract

Interracial relationships are increasingly common in the United States and almost universally accepted in public opinion polls. Alongside these indicators of shifting public acceptance, however, lies evidence of longstanding and continued stigma of interracial relationships, including worse health among interracial couples compared to their monoracial counterparts. As interracial couples are much more common among some demographics than others (e.g., interracial unions are much higher in same-sex couple households than in different-sex couple households), the ways people perceive to and respond to interracial relationships (and, thereby, their implications for well-being) may also vary. The meaning of an interracial pairing and how outsiders respond to it may also vary between partners in the same couple. In the current study, we examine differences in relationship satisfaction and health between interracial versus monoracial couples in a nationally representative sample of cohabiting and married couples. We also examine variation in this effect by race of partner and between same-gender and different-gender couples. Preliminary findings suggest that, on average, neither the character of relationships (in terms of satisfaction) nor partner health differs between interracial and monoracial couples. Rather, these differences are conditional on individual racial identification. While nonwhite partners report greater relationship satisfaction in interracial relationships than in monoracial relationships, they also report worse mental health when in such relationships. Such findings indicate that the implications of interracial unions vary between partners within the same union and that differences in the perceived character of relationships cannot explain the health disadvantage of nonwhites in such unions.

Authors

• Ashley B Barr, University at Buffalo

• Chandler Fairbanks, University at Buffalo