Relationship stigma and Black-White interracial marital satisfaction: the mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being

ABSTRACT

Although the percentage of Black-White interracial marriage continues to increase in the United States, research is limited related to the impact of stigma on these couples and the processes that influence their responses to negative racial experiences. In the current study, the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model was used as a theoretical foundation to investigate the relationship between stigma and couple satisfaction among Black-White interracially married couples, along with the potential mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being. A community sample of 180 interracially married individuals responded to surveys assessing their experiences of stigma due to being a member of an interracial couple, religious/spiritual well-being, and couple satisfaction. The analysis revealed that relationship stigma was negatively associated with couple satisfaction, and religious/spiritual well-being mediated the relationship between these two variables. To conclude, recommendations for intervention and prevention in the lives of Black-White interracial couples are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Interracial marriage
• stigma
• marital satisfaction
• religious/spiritual well-being
• mediation
• VSA model

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Joshua Knabb for his assistance throughout the editing and review of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Veola Vazquez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4282-6583

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Center for the Study of Human Behavior, California Baptist University.