Browsing by Subject "Interracial dating"

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Predicting parents' intentions to support their adult children's stigmatized romantic relationships
(2011-12) Boelter, Jill Marie; Loving, Timothy J.; Gleason, Marci; Kim, Su Yeong; Lehmiller, Justin; Neff, Lisa; Priem, Jennifer
Some romantic relationship types have a greater likelihood of receiving parental support than do others. Specifically, adults in traditional romantic relationships (i.e., same-race, opposite-sex) perceive more parental support for their relationships than do individuals in socially stigmatized relationships (e.g., interracial, same-sex relationships; Lehmiller & Agnew, 2006). The goal of the current study was to understand better what motivates parents to provide support for their adult children’s romantic relationships. To address this question, the original and a modified version of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1975) were tested. The TRA was implemented to measure whether parents’ attitudes toward showing support and the parents’ subjective norms were associated with the parents’ intentions to provide support for their children’s relationships in the future. In the modified model, subjective norms was reconceptualized to include parents’ perceptions of stigma by associating with their children’s relationships and the perceived threat of sanctions from the parent’s social networks if the parents were to provide support for their children’s relationships in the future. To improve predictive ability of the models, theoretically relevant covariates were included in each model. To capitalize on a variety of viewpoints, this study included parents whose children were either single or in dating relationships. Parents whose child was single completed the questionnaire while imagining his or her child in a traditional, interracial, or same-sex relationship whereas parents whose child was in a dating relationship reported on his or her child’s current relationship. A sample of 438 parents completed an online survey. Overall, across all groups, parents’ attitudes toward providing support were consistently associated with parents’ intentions to provide support. Associations between the parents’ subjective norms and intentions to provide support varied across groups and were not always significantly associated with parents’ intentions to provide support in the future. Furthermore, parents’ motivations to provide support differed among parents who imagined their children in relationships compared to parents whose children were in real relationships, suggesting parents may overestimate problems with their children’s interracial and same-sex relationships and underestimate problems with their children’s traditional relationships than may occur in real-life situations.
Understanding interracial dating from the insider's perspective : a qualitative analysis
(2007-12) Boelter, Jill Marie; Surra, Catherine A.
In this qualitative study, I explored reasons for changes in commitment to wed for individuals in interracial dating relationships. I analyzed narrative accounts from 112 interracial daters are analyzed by means of modified analytic induction. Findings showed that individuals both directly and indirectly attributed changes in commitment to their interracial status. Individuals directly referenced the interracial status of the couple most often with respect to experiencing sanctions from disapproving social network members. Some individuals mentioned resiliency strategies to sustain the relationship in response to sanctions and other types of opposition from outsiders. Indirect effects of interracial relationships were evident most often in reference to compatibility-testing. Furthermore, various patterns and themes emerged exemplifying how individuals explore their commitment to wed. The findings showed more commonality of experiences early in the relationships, with a focus on initial attraction and interaction, and a greater diversity of experiences as relationships progressed to evaluating the partners’ marital viability. More serious demonstrations of commitment were evident as some individuals mentioned talking about marriage with their partners whereas others emphasized living together. Additional evidence, referred to here as negative space, showed that some individuals purposely avoided mentioning their interracial status in the interview setting. Overall findings support in some ways (e.g., conflict, sanctions), and refute in other ways (e.g., resiliency strategies, failing to mention issues with race), a common assumption found in the literature that interracial dating relationships are prone to experiencing negativity because of the interracial status of the couple.