Interfaith and Interracial Couples

Risk factors for marital discord among interfaith and interracial couples

Kohn, Carolynn Susan

Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences & Engineering. Vol 61(8-B), Mar 2001, pp. 4410

The purpose of this investigation was twofold. The first objective was to examine clinical and theoretical explanations for intermarried couples' greater risk of divorce compared to homogeneous couples. It was hypothesized that compared to homogeneous couples, intermarried couples would report less family support, more severe problems with religion and family, more discrepant marital role beliefs, and greater discrepancies in acculturation. It was further hypothesized that intermarried couples' greater discrepancies in marital role beliefs would be associated with greater discrepancies in acculturation. The second objective was to examine for theoretical and clinical assumptions that intermarried couples with greater differences between the partners (i.e., interfaith/interracial couples) experience more distress and difficulties compared to intermarried couples with fewer differences between the partners (i.e., interfaith-only or interracial-only couples). Finally, exploratory analyses examined whether group status (intermarried versus homogeneous) would moderate the association between family support or communication/problem-solving skills and relationship satisfaction. Participants were 150 heterosexual couples (75 intermarried and 75 homogeneous couples), engaged or married less than 18 months, who completed a set of self-report measures. Results indicated that intermarried couples reported less family support, more severe problems with religion, and greater discrepancies in acculturation levels. Contrary to the hypothesis, no association was found between intermarried couples' acculturation and marital role belief discrepancies. In partial support of the hypothesis, results indicated that among intermarried couples, interfaith-only couples reported less distress and difficulties compared to interfaith/interracial couples. Contrary to the hypothesis, interfaith-only couples also reported less difficulties compared to interracial-only couples. Moreover, no differences were found between interracial-only and interfaith/interracial couples. Exploratory analyses revealed that group status moderated the association between communication/problem-solving skills and relationship satisfaction, such that communication/problem-solving skills were highly associated with relationship satisfaction among homogeneous couples only, and not among intermarried couples. These findings suggest that differences between couples at higher-risk versus lower risk for divorce, as well as the differential impact of culture and ethnicity on relationships, may have important implications for models of marital functioning and divorce prevention programs. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed and recommendations for future research were made.