Racial-Ethnic Socialization Messages in Romantic Relationships among college students and links with Relationship Quality

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Among college students, close interracial relationships can mitigate stereotypes and social distance toward other racial groups (Fischer, 2011). Further, racial-ethnic socialization (RES) messages that are exchanged between college peers are associated with psychological adjustment (Nelson et al., 2017). Given the developmental salience of identifying romantic partners, RES messages may be important to consider in the context of romantic relationships in college students, especially in interracial unions, in which attitudinal acceptance has increased in recent generations (Pew Research Center, 2007). Among emerging adults, relationship satisfaction can differ among those in intraracial compared to interracial relationships (De Guzman & Nishina, 2017). Therefore, we explore the types of RES messages college students receive from romantic partners and whether RES messages vary in intraracial versus interracial relationships. Further, we examine if the association between RES messages and relationship quality vary depending on racial match.
This study included 141 minoritized college students currently in a romantic relationship (87.9% female, mean age = 18.87; SD= 1.55). Among participants, 61% primarily identified as African American/Black, 8.5% as Asian/Asian American, 11.3% as European/White, 30.5% as Hispanic/Latina(o), and 7.1% as American Indian/Native American. Among these participants, 20% also identified as Multiracial. Participants completed adapted RES measures tapping into preparation for bias and cultural socialization (Hughes, 2003) and cultural pluralism and promotion of equality (Juang et al., 2016) messages from romantic partners. Additional measures include relationship satisfaction and conflict subscales (NRI-RQV; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; Buhrmester et al., 1991). 24.1% were in an interracial relationship.
As reported in Table 1, results indicated that cultural pluralism messages were reported at highest frequencies, followed by promotion of equality messages, preparation for bias messages, and cultural socialization messages. Independent sample T-tests were conducted to examine differences in levels of RES messages by shared racial heritage of romantic partners. Those who are in interracial relationships reported significantly more messages of cultural pluralism (M= 3.70; SD=1.32) compared to those who did share racial heritages (M=3.11; SD=1.40 (t(138)=2.15, p=.03). No other differences were found. The moderating role of shared racial heritage on the links between RES and relationship quality were analyzed using multiple predictor regressions (Table 2). Results reveal that romantic partners’ RES messages are associated with relationship quality depending on the racial composition of the relationship. For shared racial heritage relationships, cultural pluralism messages are linked to reduced conflict whereas for those in different racial heritage relationships, both cultural pluralism and promotion of equality are associated with reduced conflict. Preparation for biases messages were associated with more conflict for share racial heritage relationships. Thus, RES messages focusing on cultural pluralism foster better relationship quality across all relationships while promotion of equality and preparation for bias messages differed in their impact. Moreover, this sample was predominately non-White, and effects of RES may differ in majority White samples, given that delivery of parental RES messages vary by racial group. Future work should continue to test how RES messages from romantic partners shape the daily lived experience of race.

Authors

• Michele Chan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Gabriela Livas Stein, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author