African American Women’s Marital Attitudes: A Qualitative Study on Never Married Women

Abstract

Over the past few decades, marriage rates in the United States among African Americans continue to decline, yet African American women continue to express a desire to be married. Using a grounded theory qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews (N = 23), we explored marital attitudes among never married African American women. Participants identified both negative and positive exposures to marriage during childhood and messaging from family and faith communities as major sources influencing their desire to marry. Other themes, such as respectability and child behavioral benefits emerged that influenced women’s attitudes toward marriage. We present a discussion of the findings, limitations of this study, and next steps in the research.

Keywords

qualitative never married African American women marital attitudes marital paradigm theory

Introduction

In the United States, fewer Americans than ever are marrying (Tumin & Zheng, 2018), making singles a steadily growing population. According to current population statistics (2017), approximately 45% of American adults are unmarried, but this number is slightly higher for African Americans (“Black”) (49%). A greater percentage of Black women are never married at any given time compared to Black men and other American racial/ethnic groups (US Census Bureau, 2014). In 2010, the median age at first marriage for Black women was 30 years, 3 years older than for White women. By the age of 40 years, fewer Black women have married at least once compared to White women (Raley, Sweeney, Wondra, 2015). To-date, more Black women are living longer as never married than ever before and spending a significant portion of their adult lives as never married.

Despite scholar’s increased attention on never married populations (Fagan, 2011; Fagan, Pearson, & Kaufman, 2020; Guzzo, 2014), studies examining the experiences of never married Black women who are a steadily growing subgroup still lag behind (Sprenkle, 1993, 1994; Sprenkle & Lyness, 1995 as cited in Lewis & Moon, 1997). Scholars have explored the difficulty of Black women finding marriageable partners who match them in characteristics, such as age, race, education, and/or socioeconomic status (Chambers & Kravitz, 2011; McAdoo, 2007). Scholars have focused on the relative importance that Black women place on pursuing education and careers (King, 1999), the overwhelming burden of being self-reliant, and perceived stigma linked to being never married (Çelik, 2018). Yet, little is known about the socialization processes that shape these women’s beliefs about getting married and being married.

In this study, we have two aims. First, to explore never married Black women’s attitudes toward marriage. Second, to explore how influences facilitate or impede their desire to marry. Using a qualitative approach with 23 women, we sought to understand the development and socialization process of attitudes toward marriage and their effects on never married Black women’s marital trajectories. We intend to fill the gap by focusing on the socialization processes that shape the attitudes toward marriage among never married Black women. We posed the following research questions: (1) What are the attitudes toward marriage among never married Black women? (2) What influences facilitate or impede never married Black women in getting married? In the subsequent sections, we will review relevant literature concerning the beliefs about getting married and being married, using marital paradigm theory (MPT) to frame the relevant literature and discussion.

Background

Marital paradigm theory served as a conceptual guide to explain the processes by which beliefs systems affect marital attitudes. Marital paradigm theory identifies two belief systems with six distinct yet interconnected dimensions of one’s beliefs about getting married and being married. The theory includes six dimensions—marital timing (e.g., the relative importance placed on getting married); marital salience (e.g., the set of general beliefs about the importance of getting married and being married in relation to other life goals, such as education and career); marital context (e.g., the set of beliefs regarding the individual, relational and cultural context marriage should occur within, including beliefs about mate selection and personal readiness); marital processes (e.g., the set of beliefs and expectations about what occurs within the marital relationship); marital permanence (e.g., the set of beliefs about commitment and the context of marriage dissolution); and marriage centrality (e.g., the set of beliefs about the relative importance of marriage and the central position the spousal role serves in one’s marital life) (Willoughby, Hall, & Luczak’s, 2015).

Beliefs about Getting Married

Marital timing has been linked to Black adult's entry into marriage and their expectations about marriage (Doherty, Green, & Ensminger, 2012). Among Black men, the probability of marrying increases as their education increases, income increases, and their job becomes more secured (Gibson & Brown, 2009; Hill, 2009). On the contrary, the probability of Black women marrying decreases as their education and income increases (Dixon, 2009). Although Black women value marriage and place a high importance on getting married, they are less likely to marry and when they do marry, they marry at an older age (Dixon, 2009; King, 1999). Exploratory survey work has highlighted educational opportunities, structural factors, and personal circumstances that impact the likelihood of Black women marrying or delaying marriage (King, 1999). Black women value both marriage, education, and careers, but the relative importance of marriage, in comparison to the pursuit of higher education and a successful career, remains unclear (Dixon, 2009; King, 1999).

Marital salience helps to determine the set of general beliefs women have about the importance of being married in relation to other life goals (Willoughby et al., 2015). Scholars have noted an ongoing trend of Black women pursuing education, attaining advanced degrees, and pursuing careers, but then being unable to find marriageable partners as equally educated and financially stable (Edin, 2000). This economic theory has led scholars to purport that the pool of unmarriageable men has led Black women to value education and career over marriage (Wilson, 1996). King & Allen (2009) have argued that scholars have failed to operationalize “financially stable” and “educated” in their studies, making it difficult to determine precisely what these words mean in the context of Black women’s lives. Black women’s saliency of marriage may be misleading, indicating a need for further exploration.

Marital context refers to the set of beliefs regarding the context of marriage and includes the beliefs about mate selection and personal readiness. Marriage is deemed central to sexual activity, childbearing, childrearing, and caregiving of family—both immediate and extended (Dixon, 2014; Phillips, Wilmoth, & Marks, 2012). Faith communities have been associated with influencing marital context. Within faith communities, high expectations about marital fidelity exist, promoting spouses to create a shared vision of their marriage (Tuttle & Davis, 2015). It could be assumed that a high level of belonging to a faith community would influence Black women to adhere to the teachings promoted within the community. However, lesser is known about how much influence faith communities have on the marital attitudes of never married Black women.

Beliefs about Being Married

Numerous studies have examined marital processes in relation to parental functioning and socialization (Lindahl, Clements, & Markman, 1997; McLoyd, Cauce, Takeuchi, & Wilson, 2000); financial stress and economic hardship (Barton & Bryant, 2016; Wickrama, & O’Neal, 2019); and depression (Bookwala, & Jacobs, 2004; Thomeer, Umberson, & Pudrovska, 2013). Marital processes have been conceptualized more concretely as gender role attitudes and values, division of household labor, marital quality, life course changes, marriage and family conflict, and child adjustment (McLoyd et al., 2000). Contextual factors, such as stress (see Randall & Bodenmann, 2009), more specifically financial strain (Barton & Bryant, 2016) have affected the trajectory of marital processes among Black marriages. Longitudinal data have highlighted how the concurrent and intersectional influence of their social environment (e.g., friendship networks and kinship networks) and economic situation, within the context of their larger environment (e.g., institutional racism) shaped Black adult's interpretations of their marital experiences (Bryant et al., 2010). To-date, few studies examine the intersectionality of these contextual factors in the lives of never married Black women.

Marital permanence, the beliefs and attitudes focused on marital longevity, and the context surrounding the acceptability in the dissolution of marriage have been linked to one’s mental health (Simon & Marcussen, 1999) and divorce (Schovanek & Cameron, 2001). Hatemi, McDermott, & Eaves (2015) suggested that negative life events, such as divorce, moderate genetic influences on relationship attitudes. Research has found that race-related disadvantages and stressful events are another salient factor that differentially affects Black adults and compounds marital permanence (Simons, Simons, Lei, & Landor, 2011). These early experiences contribute to the development of cynical and distrusting relational schemas that increase the likelihood of troubled intimate partnered relationships during adolescent and young adulthood.

The intergenerational transmission of attitudes toward marriage and intimate partnerships influences marriage centrality, the relative importance of marriage, and role of the spouse (Willoughby, Carroll, Vitas, & Hill, 2012). Research has demonstrated a connection between the attitudes and expectations of marriage young adults hold based on the observation of their parent’s relationship (Cassinat & Jensen, 2020). A positive relationship between married parents promoted favorable marital attitudes, but yielded inconclusive beliefs that marriage was central (DeLoach McCutcheon, 2020; Guzzo, 2014). Despite the role that marriage centrality may serve in understanding marital attitudes, research in this area is still nascent (Willougby, 2014) and nonexistent for never married Black women.

Method

Recruitment

We used a qualitative approach with a convenience sample of women who were never married and living in the United States. Women were eligible to participate if they self-identified as Black, Black, and/or of African descent, and were between the ages of 18–50 years old. We recruited participants by sending emails to individuals, posting flyers on Facebook groups targeting Black women, and sending flyers to professional, social, and academic organizational listservs targeting Black women. We requested that women who expressed interest in the study share the flyers with other Black women. Interested women contacted the researchers via email and/or telephone to schedule a date and time for an interview. The study received approval from the university institutional review board. All participants provided informed consent prior to the interview and received no remuneration for participation.

Procedure

We used a semi-structured interview guide that solicited participant’s attitudes toward marriage and external influences on their marital attitudes, beginning with their individual attitudes (e.g., How important is it to you to get married? Why is marriage important to you?), their expectations about marriage (e.g., When you think of marriage, what things are you excited about or look forward to? Are there things that concern or worry you?), their expectations about not finding a marriageable partner to marry (e.g., When thinking about a marriageable partner, are there things that worry you about?), the marital arrangement of their biological parents (e.g., What was the marital status of your parents when you were a child? What is the marital status of your parents to-date?), and the influences that affect their marital attitudes (e.g., What influenced your attitudes toward marriage? What messages did you receive about marriage as a child? As an adult? As you think about the messages you have received about marriage since you were a child, have there been any changes in the messaging?). Two of the authors conducted interviews, wrote-up field notes immediately following interviews, and all authors discussed the interviews and field notes with each other to maintain quality and provide additional information regarding the main themes emerging from each interview, questions to pursue in future interviews, and challenges experienced during an interview (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014).

Sample

Participants’ educational levels varied from high school diploma to advanced graduate degrees, with 69.6% (n = 16) of the participants earning a bachelor’s degrees or higher. Over 78.2% (n = 18) of the women were employed in mostly full-time positions, despite that a few (3) were unemployed and (2) were full-time students. The average income for this sample was $45,000 (USD). The economic advantage is related to the educational status of participants, a function of our recruitment strategies. The average age was 30.56 (SD = 6.07) years. Twenty participants identified as single, referring to not being involved in a relationship. Of the three participants who were involved in a heterosexual relationship, three of them lived with their intimate partner. Five participants also had children. All participants identified as being spiritual and 22 participants reported being religious, but one reported that they were not affiliated presently with a religious institution. Seven of the participants lived in an urban region, 72% of the women lived equally between either suburban (8) or rural (8) communities.

Data Analysis

The qualitative data consisted of 23 in-depth face-to-face interviews, which yielded 21.08 hours of digital audio records and 220 pages of text transcripts. On average, the interviews lasted 55 minutes and yielded 12 pages of single spaced, 12-point font transcripts. The audio recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, and each transcript was coded by three coders. As recommended by Miles et al., (2014), coders conducted a multistep process by developing a matrix, in which, rows corresponded with each question from the interview guide. In the first column, the coder developed summarizing statements participants provided to each of the interview questions. In the second column, the coder included direct quotes that emphasized or highlighted the summaries. When one coder completed a matrix, a second coder reviewed it to maintain quality and accuracy. The research team used the matrices to summarize each participant’s interview.

Next, we developed a coding scheme from the initial transcripts and summaries. The coding scheme consisted of preliminary codes that defined the summaries of the direct quotes. Using the matrices, we developed the coding scheme from the first few transcripts, then applied the scheme to the next set of transcripts, making changes by examining, comparing, and categorizing the codes. This iterative process ensued until we could make no additional changes to the coding scheme. As a research team, we discussed and reviewed each other’s coding for accuracy, differences in codes per coder, and fidelity of the coding scheme to ensure the quality of the coding process.

Last, we used the matrices to compare data across all participants, in which we took parts of the data and compared it with new data for the purpose of verification. In comparing the data, we extracted the emerging categories by searching for structure, temporality, context, dimensions, and relation to other themes. We conducted comparisons across all participants to help us answer the main research questions. This constant comparison process provided us with a deeper understanding of the attitudes, expectations, and behaviors regarding marriage. The interviews were comprehensive and rich, allowing for predominant themes of religion, family, and expectations to be highlighted. We reconciled disagreements through consensus and maintained an audit log throughout the analysis. In the next section, we discuss the emergent themes accompanied with demographic information and direct quotes from the women.

Results

What are the Attitudes of Never Married Black Women Regarding Marriage?

To understand women’s attitudes toward marriage, it is necessary to explore the extent to which they were exposed to marriage. In the following section, we discuss in-depth the socialization process about marriage and how it affects values, beliefs, and standards about marriageable partners, roles, expectations, and childbearing.

Benefits

Women reported marriage as beneficial to children during their formative years and in later adulthood. Six participants mentioned how marriage benefitted children by providing them with structure that was believed to instill habits in their adult lives that would help them to be successful. One participant said, “marriage is supposed to be something that enhances your life, is supposed to make you better. It’s supposed to be something that your child or children can look to for the future. Oh, this is how (marriage) is supposed to be done. This is how I’m supposed to treat a lady and this is how a man is supposed to treat a woman.” Three participants spoke about the benefits to children in terms of improving or enhancing their behavior that would lead them to success. Said one participant:

I think marriage can make the difference between how children prosper or do not prosper… [F]amilies that have two parents in the household are more apt to have more discipline more focus and more direction…[P]arents teach their children the morals and standards of hard work…I think they will be a little more focused and driven when they have two parents in the home.

Another common benefit expressed was marriage granted women with security. Four women expressed that marriage benefited children and women, in that it provided them with additional physical and financial assistance. One woman commented, “I think marriage is important because…it really supports wom[e]n giving them a sense of security... if anything happens you can’t just walk out and just leave…[T]aking marriage more seriously… can help our children.”

Sanctity

Eighteen of the participants spoke about the importance and sacredness of marriage. They expressed beliefs that they respected the institution of marriage and that overall, they believed that society had lost some of that respect for it. One participant said, “I believe that marriage is sacred… I think it’s divine. And it should be in life… God made man for woman and woman for man…”. Finding someone who believed in the sacredness of marriage was another desire that participants expressed. For one woman, she expressed disbelief of finding a Black man who values the sanctity of marriage. This woman said, “One day I want to be married, but I am considering the possibility that I may have to go outside of my race to find somebody who holds the institution of marriage as sacred as I do.” Eighteen participants shared how they believed that marriage was the sacred family arrangement for having and raising children. Five participants referred to their religious institution as appropriate for childbearing. Said one participant, “Marriage is important to me… I feel like it’s another level in life that I look forward to getting to do...It’s something that I hope to do because I want to have children one day. It’s sacred and the proper place to have children.” A couple of women were conflicted about marriage and childbearing. Two women expressed ambivalence over their religious beliefs about children born within marriage and wanting children and not being married. One woman said:

Marriage for me means, as far as my religion, that it's okay for me to have children. ... I’m kind of torn between those two things because…my religious beliefs state I should be married before I have children. But, I also want to have children and don’t necessarily feel marriage is, um, a mandate or a male relationship is necessary for me to have kids.

Two participants cited that they desired to be married before having children to avoid stigma. One woman mentioned, “I don’t want to be another statistic or a baby mama. I want a husband and do it [family formation] the right way.” Among this group of Black women, marriage was seen as a mechanism to avoid stigma, specifically regarding childbearing and childrearing, which was a common theme that emerged. Women wanted to escape the appearance of impropriety they attributed to single motherhood and wanted to gain respectability through their marital status.

Exposure and Messaging about Marriage

Most women reported that their family of origin influenced their marital attitudes. Specifically, when asked about the main influencer on the women’s attitudes toward marriage, 18 out of 23 women reported that their immediate family, extended family, or friend’s immediate family was the largest influencer. In fact, when women had greater exposure and/or access to married couples, they reported more favorable attitudes about marriage. Married couples served as examples and modeled how to work collaboratively, resolve conflict, display care, respect, and affection, and make decisions with an intimate partner. A 31-year-old social worker stated,

(M)y parents have been married since they were young so I grew up in a two-parent home watching them interact with each other, make decisions together, and support each other. As you are growing up, you always look to your parents and your friend’s parents and you look at their actions and the things they do. So that, of course, has a major influence on what you think marriage is.

Women who as children lived with a parent who was never married, divorced, or lived in an alternate living arrangement, such as living with a significant other rather than being married to the individual, surprisingly favored marriage over alternative living arrangements with intimate partners. Despite having little exposure and/or access to married couples in their immediate or extended family throughout their childhood, they still favored marriage, but were more flexible about the pathway and length of time it took to get married. Twelve women stated that they were okay with intimate partners living together, but not for extended lengths of time, and not without the relationship moving toward marriage. An 18-year old mentioned:

I’ve lived with my mom’s boyfriend and they were not married, they were dating. It was fine. I’m not sure how to describe it because it wasn’t anything unusual. It depends on the situation…. I think that people should be married after a certain time. Living together or being with each other for a lot of years, after 10 years of living with somebody and you have never thought about marriage, I think it’s odd. Something’s wrong with that.

Another woman shared the following about how her exposure to her grandparent’s marriage shaped her attitudes around the need for married couples to maintain roles. These roles aligned with traditional gender roles. A 35-year-old accountant stated:

My mom and I lived with my grandparents the majority of my childhood. … my grandparents were happily married 42 years until my grandfather passed. Their marriage in my mind was what marriage was supposed to be. He was the head of the house… made sure that everyone went to church…My grandmother did her part as a woman, taking care of the house. I really think that the two different roles are necessary... So that that’s what shaped my opinion [about marriage] because I grew up seeing the male role and the female role. I saw that it worked.

Women described religious exposure as being influential to their values and expectations about marriage. Many of these values and beliefs conveyed Judeo-Christian beliefs about the purpose of marriage, marriage being an institution between a man and a woman, and the roles that each partner plays. Several women described the attitudes toward marriage being influenced from what they learned growing up in their faith community. One participant said,

Religion plays a very important role. I was kind of raised in the church, in a Pentecostal denomination, but just overall a good Christian Church. The Bible saying that a union is between a man and a woman and it needs to happen before kids, stuff of that nature. It’s the primary place of the whole idea about marriage.

Not all participants viewed religion as being a major influence in their attitudes toward marriage. Three participants identified as being spiritual and attending church often but did not believe that religion played a major role on their beliefs about marriage.

What Influences Facilitate or Impede Never Married Black Women in Getting Married?

Education

An unexpected source that influenced marital attitudes was cited by two of the women. These women reported how college classes exposed them to discussions about relationships and marriage. In taking these classes, they learned about marriage from a theoretical perspective, possibly exposing them to knowledge and insight about marital relationships to which they would be unaware otherwise. Said one participant, “[I] took a lot of psychology classes and so you know in psychology you talk about marriage and relationships and things like that…” The discussion of marriage and relationships in class provided her with more insight about the nature of intimate marital relationships than what she experienced from her parents who were not married. Five other women reported that their parents were not married and that they learned about marriage from classes at their university or college. This information ostensibly influenced understanding about what it meant to be married, to function within a marriage, and the challenges faced within marriage.

Focus on Attaining Education or Advancing Their Career

The need to pursue education and advance their careers was also emphasized by participants. Said one participant, “I would say definitely my focus is on academics right now and just trying to establish myself career wise.” Seven women spoke about how they needed to focus their attention to earning a bachelor or graduate degree. Three other women mentioned how they wanted to earn graduate degrees so that they could earn money and help take care of their family:

As a young Black woman, you need to get yourself together first before you get married or bring someone else into your life. You need an education and a career so you can take care of your family. You need to make sure that you have your stuff together first.

Two women in their forties spoke about pursuing higher education as a lifetime dream ever since childhood and their beliefs about the inability to pursue education and have a fulfilling career if they married in their twenties. One participant expressed ambivalence regarding feeling regret over pursuing career and education over marriage:

I chose to leave my small-town to pursue my career and degree. This young man wanted to get married, but I thought I was too young…I worked in a career for over 20 years and then went on to graduate school to further my education.... So, I have some regrets, but then I don’t have regrets. Because I, ever since I was 10 [years old], I wanted to pursue a degree. I think that if I would have married him, I would not have pursued my degree.

Lack of Exposure to a Marriageable Partner

The lack of a man selecting them as a marriageable partner was also cited by participants. Six participants spoke about how it was the responsibility of the man to find them. This sentiment was commonly shared by participants who identified as heterosexual and Christian. Their expression removed the onus of responsibility for finding a marriageable partner from them and placed it solely on the man. This passive stance meant they were attempting to make themselves accessible and visible to potential partners. One participant said, “I have not found the right partner or I have not been found by the right partner.” Five participants noted the difficulty of finding a compatible partner, particularly one who shared similar values. As one woman commented:

I guess not finding the right person to marry me is the reason why I have not married. Not finding someone who shares the same values and beliefs…As a person wanting to have children, I have not found someone who has the same common goals about family…Most [men] may already have children and don’t want anymore. They’re just not looking to be married. They want all of the comforts of marriage without being married…a woman who is faithful, cooks, cleans, raises the children, without expecting a marriage commitment.

Pressure

Women described a range of pressure from different sources to get married. Many of these pressures related to following religious rules regarding intimate relationships. Women’s feelings of pressure about being unmarried were compounded by the pressure they felt to get married. Ten women spoke about how they felt pressure to get married from different sources—family members, co-workers, or individuals from their faith community. Two women reported feeling pressured from religious people at their job:

…Bible thumper’s, religious people at work…who walk around trying to put the Bible in your face…“living together isn’t what you’re supposed to do. You’re not supposed to have sex before marriage. That’s a sin...[I]t’s not just in the church…at work…people start to judge you… You have to go get a [marriage] license and have it [wedding ceremony] before God.”

Women spoke about the pressure to marry as an escape of the societal stigma of being a “baby mama,” referring to an unwed mother. One woman cited, “On my father’s side, if you have a child and you’re not married… you’ll not receive a baby shower because those are reserved for married women who did it the right way.” Women also noted conflicting experiences over feeling pressured by their family and faith community to marry to avoid “living in sin.” One woman commented, “My parents want me to get married. The church says you must get married to avoid living in sin. I know living with my boyfriend is wrong, but we’ll get married one day.”

Disbelief

Over half of the women cited they did not believe men were socialized to be good husbands. Women described different ways that they expected a future husband to behave and their doubt of men being capable to do so. One woman reflected:

I don’t think men have been raised to be husbands and honor the women as wives…do chivalrous acts, take responsibility of taking out the trash, making sure that the car has oil, changing the tires, making sure that her vehicle is safe. Those are things that I saw growing up between my mom and dad. [G]uys today are not committed for the long haul.

Finally, being ready to marry was cited as a contributing factor for eight women. This included four women who were in a committed relationship, two women who were dating, and two women who were not in a relationship. For most of these women, readiness was not the only reason why they had not married but rather one of many reasons.

Discussion

We used the marital paradigm theory and qualitative data to answer two questions, “What are the attitudes of never married Black women regarding marriage?” and “What influences facilitate or impede never married Black women in getting married?” For the first question, three themes emerged: (1) the positive benefits of marriage to women and to children; (2) the sanctity of marriage; and (3) the educational process for understanding marriage and mate selection. For the second question, five themes emerged: (1) how the pursuit of a career detracted attention away from getting married; (2) how messaging about marriage contributed to whether they deemed marriage as important; (3) the pressures of getting married; (4) finding marriageable partners; and (5) disbelief in men being committed and ready for marriage. In this section, we will discuss how the themes mapped onto marital paradigm theory and their implications to practice.

Beliefs about Getting Married

Marital Timing

The first theme emphasized the importance of getting married. Women identified how their lives and the lives of their future children would benefit from marriage. Previous studies have demonstrated improved mental and physical health, increased financial security, and positive emotional benefits of marriage (Umberson & Montez, 2010). One study found a link between children’s mental and physical health, as evidenced by the behaviors of married parents being more likely to engage in positive parenting behaviors: breastfeeding, monitoring, supervising, and building social capital to benefit children’s biospsychosocial and emotional functioning compared to non-married parents (Harknett, 2009). Like other empirical studies in this area (e.g., Harris, 2020; Van Eeden-Moorefield et al., 2007), participants suggested marriage provided women with emotional and financial security and companionship and provided children with psychosocial structures, financial stability, and resources available from parent’s combined social capital. Women viewed this as an advantage and desired getting married for themselves and for their future and existing children.

Marital Salience

Unlike previous research on this specific subject, the present study found that women desired the status of being married and perceived respect associated with it (Barr, Simons, & Simons, 2015). This finding differs from other studies that have noted, among Black adults, a shift in attitudes away from marriage toward cohabitating as an escape from what some view as a socially imposed indicator of an individual’s commitment to an intimate relationship or an outdated institution no longer needed for childbearing or childrearing (Bramlett & Mosher, 2002; Chaney & Monroe, 2011). Findings from this study suggested that women desired marriage over cohabitation and believed marriage was the best arrangement for childbearing, childrearing, and children. This corresponds to previous research that has been replicated across child ages and across various domains of health and wellness suggesting that children raised in homes with two biological parents fared better than children raised in households with a parent and non-biological parent (Harknett, 2009; Ryan, 2012).

Marital Context

In the third theme, women identified the role education played in their desire to be married. Previous studies have encouraged educational programs as opportunities to promote marriage among never married individuals (Chaney & Monroe, 2011; Lane, 2004). In the early 2000s, an explosion of on group-based marriage education occurred (Dixon, 2005), stemming from policy initiatives to reduce poverty, prompting a debate regarding the culturally appropriateness and widespread distribution of existing marital education to racially, ethnically, and economically diverse populations (Blanchard, Hawkins, Baldwin, & Fawcett, 2009).

Beliefs about Being Married

Marital Processes

Established roles between married couples were a constant theme that emerged when women discussed successful marriages. Moreover, the type of marriage—successful or unsuccessful—determined the type of messages transmitted about marriage (Raley, 2000). Women exposed to successful marriages received positive messages about marriage, and women exposed to unsuccessful marriages were more likely to receive a variety of messages (e.g., positive or neutral). Unlike the findings of other research, women in this study who were exposed to few marriages or unsuccessful one felt less pressure or fewer expectations to marry (Bulanda, 2010). Women who felt pressured to marry and have children within marriage grew up with families who expressed strong messages favoring marriage as the ideal family arrangement. These women received favorable messages from their religious institutions to marry and wait for marriage to have children. Women wanted to uphold the expectations their families and faith communities held about marriage, childbearing, and childrearing.

Marital Permanence

In the fifth theme, women reported reticence in finding marriageable partners who were committed to remaining married. Previous studies have found a link between positive beliefs about marriage and fulfillment and investment in marriage (Masarik et al., 2013; Riggio & Weiser, 2008). Positive attitudes toward marriage mediated family background and quality of relationship (Willougby, 2014). Family scholars have debated the existence of “divorce culture” because of the high rates of divorce and changing values in American society among modern families (Schovanec & Lee, 2001). These scholars found correlates between values and attitudes toward divorce. Despite education and employment status, women were more likely, not less likely to favor permanence of marriage (Willoughby, 2014). One study found that one’s family of origin may influence permanence of marriage attitudes in that individuals raised in single-parent families or in families where divorce occurred tend to be unfavorable towards marriage permanence (Willoughby, James, Marsee, Memmott, & Dennison, 2020). Women expressed deference toward marriage and the commitment of it.

Marital Centrality

A constant theme that emerged when women discussed successful marriages was the establishment of roles between spouses. The type of marriage—successful or unsuccessful—determined the type of messages transmitted about marital roles. Women exposed to successful marriages received positive marriage messages and women exposed to unsuccessful marriages were more likely to receive a variety of messages—positive, negative, or neutral. Furthermore, women exposed to unsuccessful marriages or few marriages did not bear the same pressure or expectations to marry or to have children within marriage. The few women who were mothers expressed regret and disappointment in being an unwed mother. Although these women loved their child(ren), they wished they had delayed having a child until after marriage.

Our study adds to the literature by identifying ways in which women’s beliefs emphasized the importance of being married, despite not having found marriageable partners. Given the ongoing declining trend in marital rates among Blacks, generally, and Black women, more than three-fourths of this sample wanted and believed that they would marry, eventually. This sample had a high religious affiliation that may have exposed them to religious teachings that influenced their desire to marry and their belief it would happen. More specifically, the perceived benefits and favorable messages about marriage for women and children and the respectability marriage affords may influence women to remain hopeful and assured that their desire to marry will be fulfilled. The results of this research should guide our understanding of the effects of socialization processes of Black women’s attitudes about marriage and should have implications for marriage preparation and premarital counseling, which is especially relevant to social workers and other mental health professionals.

Limitations

As with any research, this study consisted of a few limitations that must be considered when interpreting the findings. For one, we explored the micro level contexts of influences on the attitudes toward marriage among never married Black women. With focus on these micro level contexts, we focused little on community-level influences that may play a larger role in their attitudes toward marriage (Barr et al.,2015). Second, being that we conducted a qualitative study, the nature of this study prevents us from drawing causation. Thus, the findings are specific to this sample and the results cannot be generalized to other populations. Third, with purposive sampling method, we acknowledge that we may have oversampled certain individuals with similar characteristics and omitted others. Fourth, in achieving inter-rater reliability and developing a process for reconciling conflicts in coding, data may have been lost or interpreted differently, which could have influenced the analysis. We worked diligently against this happening, but with any research, this possibility may still have occurred despite our best efforts.

This study addresses the gap in the extant literature by exploring attitudes toward marriage among never married Black women and the influences that facilitate or impede them in getting married. This exploration is presently missing from social science literature on Black families (Logan, 1990). The exploration of attitudes toward marriage among never married people is limited, generally (Willoughby et al., 2015) and practically nonexistent for never married Black women, specifically. Narratives of never married Black women are rarely present in the literature and need exploration given the unique interpersonal and cultural contexts of their experiences, declining marriage trends (Bulanda, 2010), and the desire of Black women to find marriageable partners (King, 2009). Next steps include exploring attitudes toward marriage of never married Black men to capture their viewpoints. Examining this line of inquiry broadens the literature on Black family development.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Kendra P. DeLoach McCutcheon

Arlaina C. Harris

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