Is Marriage Really for White People Marital Status and Relationship Satisfaction among African Ameri

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Is Marriage Really for White People?Marital
Status and Relationship Satisfaction among
African American Couples

• Jaslean J. La Taillade, Ph.D.
• University of Maryland, College Park
• Email jaslean_at_umd.edu

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Decline in Marriage among African Americans

• African American men and women are less likely to
  enter into marriage than other groups
• Rates of separation and divorce for African
  Americans are nearly double the rate of the
  general population
• African American women are more likely to
  separate from their husbands within the first
  10-15 years of marriage

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Marriage Promotion Efforts

• African American Healthy Marriage Initiative
  (AAHMI)
• Development of culturally competent programs to
  increase healthy marriages
• Encourage formation and maintenance of healthy
  two-parent families
• Increase father involvement through marriage

Married People Earn More Money -Campaign for
Our Children (CFOC)
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Reasons for Decline in Marriage

• Economic hardship and instability
• Gap in numbers of available African American
  women relative to African American men
• Premarital childbearing not a significant
  predictor
• Increase in alternate family forms
• Single-person households
• Single parenthood
• Cohabitation

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Cohabitation and African Americans

• About 17 of African Americans cohabit, compared
  to 8.2 of Whites and 12.2 of Latinos
• African Americans who cohabit are less likely to
  marry than Whites
• Premarital cohabitation and marital instability
• Premarital cohabitation increases risk of marital
  instability for White women
• However, premarital cohabitation may not affect
  risk for instability for Black women

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Cohabitation and Relationship Quality

• To date, few investigations comparing cohabiting
  and married African American couples on aspects
  of relationship quality
• Relationship satisfaction
• Communication and Conflict resolution
• Partner acceptance and support
• Commitment
• No differences in relationship quality due to
  marital status alone

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Gaps in Research on Relationship Quality among
African Americans

• Middle class status and relationship formation
• Socioeconomic discrepancy between partners,
  relationship quality and stability
• Gender and perceptions of provider role
• Perceptions of powerlessness, relative to
  partners, may precipitate conflict
• Perceptions of disrespect may also precipitate
  conflict and relationship distress
• Influence of extended family and kin networks on
  relationship quality and stability
• Intergenerational effects of parental
  relationship instability
• Maintaining close relationships with parents and
  partners
• Family and kin support for relationship and
  relationship status
• Religion, spirituality and faith-based networks
• Invisibility of African American males in
  research on relationship quality and commitment

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Is Marriage Just for White People?

• Certainly not!
• Expand our work to examine how relationship
  quality, marital status and commitment varies by
• Gender
• Class status
• Individual and couple strengths and protective
  factors
• Adopt family systems perspective that addresses
  multiple levels of the couples environment,
  including past and current interactions with
  parents and other family members to promote
  healthy relationships