Stressors in African American Marriages and Families: A Qualitative Exploration

Abstract

A majority of the studies that examine stress in African American families address low-income, single-mother families. This limitation sharply constrains our understanding of the fuller range of African American experience because many African American families are not single-mother families. Based on qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with sixteen marriage-based African American families (N = 32; 16 mothers and 16 fathers) from four regions of the United States, this paper offers a rare, in-depth look at the challenges and experiences of marriage-based black families. Key themes include: (a) stress in the workplace, (b) stress in balancing work and family, and (c) family-related stress. Interview data that illustrate and support each of these themes and several related sub-themes are presented and implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• black
• coping
• marriage
• stress

Notes

¹Nearly two-thirds of the participants were Baptist (20), but participants were from a variety of religions, including Non-Denominational Christian (4), Catholic (2), African Methodist Episcopalian (2), Latter-day Saint (2), and Muslim (2) faiths.

²The first ten interview questions focused on stress and coping and these responses are the basis of this paper. Data from the second ten interview questions, which focused on family and religion, are presented elsewhere (Marks et al., 2005; Marks, Swanson, Hopkins-Williams, & Nesteruk, 2004).

³All names have been changed.