A Systematic Review of Black American Same-Sex Couples Research: Laying the Groundwork for Culturally-Specific Research and Interventions

ABSTRACT

This article presents the findings of a systematic review of the empirical literature related to Black American same-sex couples (BASCs). We found 16 articles that met inclusion criteria. Most articles were published in journals that focused on interdisciplinary studies, HIV/AIDS, and couples and families’ studies. Approximately 63% of the articles reported external funding support. However, only one of these grants was awarded to a Black investigator. Articles predominately focused on BASCs composed of Black sexual minority men residing in major U.S. cities. Only 25% of the articles focused on couples where both partners were Black. Most studies were cross-sectional, used convenience samples, and were reported without mention of a theoretical framework that explicated the philosophical assumptions that guided the research. The articles focused on a range of topics such as resilience, relationship dynamics, couple-level social support, rituals with extended families, and partner-health associations. The implications of these findings for advancing culturally-specific behavioral and social science health research and interventions with BASCs are presented.

Acknowledgments

The first author would like to acknowledge Kainaat Anwar for her work on formatting tables, figures, and references.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Grants P30-MH43520, R25MH067127, T32MH019139; and the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Grant K24DA037034.