Abstract
This article looks at marital quality in Black and White biracial marriage in the United States. It gives an overview of some of the statistics of Black and White biracial marriage. The current article also highlights variables associated with marital quality in Black and White biracial marriage such as racial differences, probability for divorce, racial identity, age, socioeconomic status, and number of children. Several practical suggestions for helping this population are pulled together at the end of the article.
Caroline County, Virginia, was the context for the unveiling of the story of Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving (Kenney, 2012). In 1958, Mildred, an African and Native American woman, and Richard, a White man, fell in love and decided to get married. Richard and Mildred were fully aware that Virginia’s laws had forbidden them to get married and after learning that such marriages were legal in the neighboring Washington, DC, they went there to get married. The newly married couple, upon their return to Virginia to begin their life together, was arrested on grounds that their marriage was deemed unlawful on the basis of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws. As a way of escaping imprisonment, the Lovings accepted expulsion from Virginia for 25 years and relocated to Washington, DC. The court case of the Lovings was heard in Caroline County, Virginia, and the trial judge’s statement in the case depicted the attitude that society had against biracial marriages or coupling. The judge stated, “God separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix” (Kenney, 2012, p. 100). The Lovings had to live their lives without the support and love of family and friends for 5 years. They sought the help of the U.S. Attorney General’s Office and the American Civil Liberties Union and they brought a case against the state of Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court, on June 12, 1967, ruled that the anti-miscegenation laws that remained in 16 states, including Virginia, were unconstitutional. This ruling gave right to biracial couples to marry and live wherever they chose. With this background, this article will look at Black/White biracial marriages.
Biracial Marriage and Children of Biracial Marriage Statistics
Since the 1967 Supreme Court ruling, biracial couples have been steadily increasing in the United States (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011; Kenney, 2012; Passel, Wang, & Taylor, 2010; Wong, 2009). A bicultural couple has been defined as a relationship between two individuals from different racial groups (Kenney, 2012; Wong, 2009). In 1970, it was estimated that 900,000 biracial couples (included married and nonmarried) lived in the United States (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011). Fu and Wolfinger (2011) reported that this figure was estimated to be 4,900,000 by 2000, which is 5 times the number of biracial couples who lived in the United States in 1970. In other words, the possibility of a person marrying someone from another race in 2000 was 5 times more likely than in 1970. Kenney (2012) reported that of the 60 million total marriages, based on the 2012 U.S. Census data, 2.4 million were biracial. Passel, Wang, and Taylor (2010) reported similar increases in biracial marriages. According to their Pew Research on data from U.S. Census Bureau, they found that 14.6% (one in seven) of all news marriages in the United States in 2008 were biracial, which they argued is about 6 times the intermarriage rate among newlyweds in 1960 and more than twice the rate in1980 (Passel et al., 2010). Biracial marriages are estimated to make up 8% of all marriages in the United States in 2012 as oppose to 3% in 1980 (Morello, 2012). Wang (2012) reported that 9% of Whites marry out of their race (twice the number of Whites in 1980) compared to 17% of Blacks (3 times the number of Blacks in 1980), 26% of Hispanics, and 28% of Asians.
Almost five decades since the Supreme Court decriminalized interracial marriage, Virginia leads the nation in the percentage of marriages between Blacks and Whites. However, intermarriage rates in the Unites States tilt toward the West coast (Wang, 2012). Wang (2012) reported that 22% of all newlyweds in Western United States married out of their race between 2008 and 2010, compared with 14% in the South, 13% in the Northeast, and 11% in the Midwest. More specifically, nine states reported that at least one in five newlyweds married someone of another race or ethnicity (Wang, 2012). Wang (2012) found that Hawaii (42.4%) had the highest rate of newlyweds who married to someone of another race, followed by Oklahoma (26.3%), Nevada (25.6%), New Mexico (25.4%), Alaska (23.9%), California (23.2%), Arizona (22%), Washington (21.2%), and Oregon (20.4%).
Marriages between Blacks and Whites have also increased significantly (Passel et al., 2010). Passel et al. (2010) reported that in 1961, less than 1 in 1,000 new marriages in the United States were between a Black person and a White person. They reported that this figure increased to about 1 in 150 new marriages by 1980 and 1 in 60 new marriages by 2008. In 2008, the possibility of a White person marrying a Black person was 16 times more likely than in 1961. Black/White interracial marriage among newlyweds in 2010 accounted for 11.9% of all newlyweds who married across racial and ethnic lines (Wang, 2012). Black men were almost 3 times as likely to marry someone of another race when compared to Black women (Morello, 2012). More specifically, White/Black intermarriage rate among men aged 20–30 was 0.05% in 1900, and in 2000, the intermarriage rate among men aged 20–30 was 1.8%. The intermarriage rate among this aged group of men in 2000 was 38 times what it was 100 years earlier (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011). Blacks who married Whites and were newlyweds between 2008 and 2010 generally had higher educational attainments than those who married intraracially (Wang, 2012). White males who were newlyweds and had a Black wife had higher combined income than did White males who married intraracially (Wang, 2012). Wang (2012) reported that White females who were newlyweds between 2008 and 2010 and had a Black husband had lower combined income than those who married intraracially. While there is a significant increase in the number of interracial Black/White couples over the last 100 years, the increase in other interracial unions outnumbers the increase among Black/White partnerships. However, Black/White couples have experienced much of the pushback or hostility from society due to the assumption that Whites are superior to Blacks (Kenney, 2012).
Similarly, the number of children living with biracial parents also increased significantly in the United States (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011). In 1970, there were 1,700,000 children living with interracial parents. The number of children living with biracial parents in 2000 was 5,400,000 (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011), which was 3 times the number of children living with biracial parents in 1970. These statistics indicate there has been a significant increase in biracial marriages and biracial parents over the last 40 years.
Marital Quality in Black/White Marriages
Research indicated that marital quality in biracial marriages is related to several factors (Broman, 2005; Fu & Wolfinger, 2011; Kenney, 2012; Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). Broman (2005) conducted a study on marital quality in biracial Black/White marriages. In this study, Broman (2005) analyzed the data for 1,484 respondents from the American’s Changing Lives Survey, which was collected by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. Three waves of data were collected: The first was collected in 1986, the second in 1989, and the third in 1995. Broman (2005) found that there was a significant difference is marital quality across all races. Another finding Broman (2005) reported was that Blacks are more likely to report that their spouse had an affair, hits or pushes, and wastes money. Blacks were found to be less likely than Whites to report that their spouse makes them feel loved and they report lower marital quality than do Whites (Broman, 2005).
Age, Socioeconomic Status, Number of Children, and Gender
Age, socioeconomic status, number of children, and gender are associated with marital quality (Broman, 2005; Fu, 2006). Broman (2005) found that marital quality was associated with age, financial satisfaction, and the number of children in families. He further reported an inverse relationship between the number of children and marital quality. In other words, as the number of children increases, marital quality decreases. Older people were found to have higher marital quality than younger people and financial satisfaction was associated with increased marital quality (Broman, 2005). Fu (2006) suggested that biracial couples tend to have equal status regardless of racial origin and that higher status was associated with having more choices in mate selection across racial groups and are linked to higher risk of divorce. He further suggested that status is associated with power in making important decisions, which gives an individual more freedom to dissolve a marriage. Fu and Wolfinger (2011) also found that race was not a significant predictor of marital quality when controlling for spousal behaviors. Research was conducted with data for 76 African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region, and Forry, Leslie, and Letiecq (2007) found that women (Black or White) reported their marriages to be more unfair to them than do men. In other words, being a female was associated with greater marital unfairness. In addition, sex role ideology was found to have a moderating effect on perceived unfairness and marital quality for African American men (Forry, Leslie, & Letiecq, 2007). The above findings suggest that socioeconomic status, age, number of children, and gender are linked to marital quality.
Racial Differentials in Marital Quality
The behaviors of biracial couples were suggested to be associated with marital quality (Broman, 2005). A key factor affecting race differences in marital quality is the fact that Blacks and Whites experience different levels of positive and negative behaviors from their spouses (Broman, 2005). Spousal behavior is critical to the marital quality in Black/White marriages (Broman, 2005; Fu & Wolfinger, 2011). Broman (2005) found that lower marital quality was associated with spouse having affairs, being too critical, hitting, and wasting money. Marital quality increased when spouse felt loved and listened to. Broman (2005) concluded that the important reason for race differences in marital quality is that Blacks and Whites experience different levels of positive and negative behavior from their spouses. He further argued that these factors explain the association between race and marital quality. Black/White interracial couples were found to be similar to White/White and Black/Black couples (Forry et al., 2007; Herr, 2009) in their perceived level of marital satisfaction (Herr, 2009; La Taillade, 2000). Interracial Black/White couples were found to be as adjusted and satisfied in their relationship when compared to intraracial Black and White couples (La Taillade, 2000). Fu and Wolfinger (2011) also found that race was not a significant predictor of marital quality when controlling for spousal behaviors. This finding by Fu and Wolfinger (2011) may be explained by Broman’s (2005) conclusion that marital quality is not related to race but rather the behavior from the spouse.
Probability for Divorce
Biracial couples, like other couples, are not immune to divorce (Fu & Wolfinger, 2011). Fu and Wolfinger (2011) conducted research on data from the 1995 to 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to investigate divorce differences between same-race and biracial couples who were married in the 1980s and 1990s. Fu and Wolfinger (2011) limited his research sample to first marriage couples who were Black/White and Latino/White and were between 15 and 44 years of age. The15-year survival probabilities for Black man/White woman or White man/Black woman (both 59%) couples fell between those for White/White (66%) and Black/Black (56%) marriages. This represents a 3% increase in the survival probabilities for Blacks in Black/White marriages and 7% decrease in the survival probabilities for Whites in Black/White marriages. Fu and Wolfinger (2011) argued that this finding from the White/Black couples is consistent with the notion of convergence, which suggests that the divorce rate among interracial couples is an average of the divorce rate of the two endogamous couple groups.
Conversely, Bratter and King (2008) reported that biracial couples have a higher likelihood for divorce at year 10. They conducted analysis on data from the National Survey of Family Growth (Cycle VI). Bratter and King (2008) found that the higher rates of divorce were mostly in marriages where the White spouse is female. Non-Hispanic Black husband/White wife couples were twice as likely to divorce when compared to White/White couples (Bratter & King, 2008). Additionally, Bratter and King (2008) reported that White husband/non-Hispanic Black wife couples were at a 44% reduced odds to divorce in comparison with White/White couples. They also reported that non-Hispanic Black/White unions and non-Hispanic Black/non-Hispanic Black marriages showed a higher probability for divorce than White/White unions. Non-Hispanic Black husband/White wife marriages were at greater odds for marital instability than non-Hispanic Black same-race marriages (Bratter & King, 2008).
Zhang and Hook (2009) reported comparable findings to Bratter and King (2008). Zhang and Hook (2009) conducted an analysis on approximately 2,059 couples (8.9%) of the sample from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, who were divorced or separated to determine the probability of divorce. The majority (93.5%) of the couples were in intraracial unions (77.4% White/White, 6.4% Black/Black, 7% Hispanic/Hispanic, and 2.7% Asian/Asian) and the remaining 6.5% were interracial unions (1% White/Black, 3.5% White/Hispanic, 1.4% White/Asian pairings, and 0.6% of all types of minority/minority marriages combined). Zhang and Hook (2009) reported that Blacks are more than twice less likely than Hispanics or Asians to have a White spouse (10.1% vs. 23.5% and 24.6%, respectively). They also found that Black/White unions were more likely to break up when compared to other interracial unions and Black and White intraracial marriages. Zhang and Hook (2009) reported that nearly 20% of Black/White couples divorced or separated relative to 10% of White/White and 16% of Black/Black couples. Multivariate analyses were conducted by Zang and Hook (2009), and they found that Black/White couples were at significant greater risk for marital dissolution than White/White couples across all four models but that their risk was no different from same-race Black couples. Black husband/White wife couples were more likely to divorce than White couples but the risk was similar to same-race Black couples (Zhang & Hook, 2009). Zhang and Hook (2009) further reported that Black husband/White wife were the least stable of all marriage types.
In addition to the normative stress that all couples face, biracial Black/White couples are more likely to experience rejection and isolation from family and friends and even verbal and physical forms of discrimination from their own ethnic group and that of their partner (La Taillade, 2006; Zhang & Hook, 2009). Similarly, Bell and Hastings (2015) reported that the societal and familial disapproval that Black/White interracial couples encounter in relation to their relationship create additional tensions and conflicts for their relationship. After conducting qualitative analysis on data for 38 individuals who represent 19 Black/White biracial couples, Bell and Hastings (2015) found that both individuals in the interracial couple dyads experience public disapproval but not all couple dyads experience parental disapproval. They also reported that couples with dual parental approval were less bothered by negative public experiences than one-sided approval couples. Bell and Hastings (2015) findings indicate the importance of parental approval to marital longevity for Black/White interracial couples and also the destructive nature of parental disapproval to marital longevity. The social isolation and discrimination experienced by Black/White biracial couples were unrelated to relationship functioning in Black/White interracial relationships (La Taillade, 2000). While interracial Black/White couples experienced much of the pushback or hostility from society (Kenney, 2012), Fu and Wolfinger (2011) reported that there is an absence of effect for marital dissolution for crossing racial boundaries for Black/White couples.
Furthermore, researchers have indicated that there are several predictor variables of marital dissolution, which include the following factors: (1) age at marriage, (2) whether one or both partners had a child prior to the marriage, (3) whether the spouse cohabitated with the other spouse or another partner prior to marriage, (4) whether or not one or both spouse’s parents’ marriage was intact at age 14, (5) socioeconomic status, (6) age difference between the spouses, (7) marriages other than first marriage, (8) duration of marriage (the average duration of American marriages that end in divorce is 8 years), and (9) number of children living with biracial couple based on the inverse relationship on marital quality as cited above (Bratter & King, 2008; Broman, 2005; Fu & Wolfinger, 2011; Kreider, 2005; Zhang & Hook, 2009). Consequently, current research that seeks to determine the probability of divorce in biracial Black/White marriage and other interracial unions need to control for the predictor variables listed above to reduce the likelihood that results are influenced by any of the predictor variables.
These findings indicate that the probability for divorce among Black/White biracial couples is mixed although these couples experience familial and societal disapproval that generally create tensions and conflicts in their relationship. The fact that the probability for divorce among biracial Black/White couples returned mixed results, even though Black/White couples encounter additional stressors to the normative marital stress that all couples face, suggest that most of these couples are resilient.
Racial Identity
Positive racial identity is associated with marital quality (La Taillade, 2006; Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). Leslie and Letiecq (2004) found, after conducting a study with 76 Black/White biracial couples (52 Black male/White female and 24 Black female/White male), that marital quality was related to racial identity for Blacks and to a lesser extent for their White partners. Blacks, who reported a more positive Black identity, were less likely to report feelings of marital ambivalence and were more likely to express love in their relationship and work at maintaining their marriage (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). Leslie and Letiecq (2004) reported that Whites, who reported that they saw their culture as superior to Black culture, were less likely to express love for their spouses. The above findings indicate that marital quality for Blacks is associated with ethnic pride in one’s racial identity and acceptance of other races and cultures (nonsuperiority of race) by Whites were linked to higher probability for expression of love for their partner.
Both Blacks and Whites who were married for shorter periods of time engaged in more maintenance behavior for the marriage (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). Leslie and Letiecq (2004) further reported that African Americans and Whites who reported more support from their social network were more likely to work at their relationship. They found that White females reported receiving significantly more support from friends than did Black males. Black males were found to report significantly more experiences of discrimination than either White males or White females (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). La Taillade (2006) suggested that 60% of Black/White biracial couples experience negative public reactions (covert forms such as staring or more overt forms such as derogatory jokes and institutional discrimination). Biracial Black/White couples are more likely to experience disapproval and ostracization from family members (La Taillade, 2006). Similarly, Forry et al. (2007) reported that African Americans in Black/White unions experience more ambivalence about their relationships than their White partner. Killian (1998) found, after conducting qualitative analysis on data for 10 Black/White couples married for at least 1 year and had at least one child together, that Black partners in White/Black interracial unions were found to demonstrate awareness of and sensitivity to public reactions than Whites in Black/White partnership (Killian, 1998). In addition, Blacks in these partnerships were more concerned than Whites about the challenges/hostility their children may face. La Taillade (2000) conducted analysis on 20 African American/White couples, 14 African American same-race couples, and 17 White same-race couples in committed long-term relationships. La Taillade (2000) found that multiculturalism and ethnic pride were less central to marital quality (relationship functioning) for biracial couples when compared to parental support and acceptance. Additionally, partners may project their experience of racism-related anger and frustration on their partner, which may lead to increase relationship conflict and distress (La Taillade, 2006). Positive racial identify, acceptance of other races and cultures, and social support from biracial couple’s familial and friendship network have a positive association with marital quality.
Implication for Therapy
Black/White biracial couples not only have to deal with the normative stressors that face all married couples but also they have to grapple with additional stressors. With the increasing rate of biracial couples, therapists need to be equipped with tools to help biracial couples process and navigate these difficulties. Wong (2009) suggested a few ways that therapists can help these couples. Therapists can help biracial couples to cope with the additional stressors by teaching them skills or techniques (such as social skills that will help to increase affection and dialogue in the relationship) that will help to increase their marital quality and success. Secondly, therapists can help them to explore the differences and similarities between the two ethnicities. Thirdly, it is important to encourage these couples to create a new culture of shared meaning, which will help to strength the bond in their relationship. Clinicians who provide therapy to interracial couples need to help the interracial dyad to manage familial and society disapproval and the effects of racial privilege (Leslie & Young, 2015).
Therapists working with couples need to encourage and nurture biracial couples to develop positive feelings about themselves and their race, while respecting the culture of their partners (Leslie & Letiecq, 2004). The goal is to help couples achieve a certain level of comfort and respect for both cultures. Another factor that will help biracial couples navigate the challenges is to increase their awareness about the negative impact of cultural superiority on marital quality (La Taillade, 2006). Kenney (2012) argued that biracial marriage is an indicator of the assimilation process and therefore counselors need to assist biracial couples to become better assimilated. He further suggested that therapists working with biracial couples should be culturally competent and sensitive, which requires therapists to be competent in the multicultural competencies (Kenney, 2012). These competencies are awareness, skill, and knowledge. Developing awareness requires counselors to become self-ware. Navahandi, Denhardt, Denhardt, and Aristiguera (2015) defined “self-aware” as the ability to recognize and understand one’s moods, emotions, and drives as well as their effect on others. Therapists need to be particularly aware of their own biases, assumptions, and values and how these biases may impact their work with biracial couples. Additionally, therapists should develop a good understanding of the couple’s racial heritage and broad cultural and sociopolitical context of the United States as it relates to racial mixing (Kenney, 2012). Therapists working with biracial couples must develop the skills of using the research literature to inform their work with clients. This also includes matching clinical theory with pertinent clinical problem, thus creating the highest possibility for success. Finally, therapists can help biracial couples navigate the challenges by encouraging positive racial identify and respect for their partner’s race.
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.