United and Divided by Stress: How Stressors Differentially Influence Social Support in African American Couples Over Time

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 1050-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick D. Clavél ◽  
Carolyn E. Cutrona ◽  
Daniel W. Russell
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
African American ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Support Providers ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Stressful Experiences ◽  
African American Couples ◽  
Good Support ◽  
Over Time

The factors that allow people to be good support providers in relationships are not fully understood. We examined how support providers’ stressful experiences (financial strain and racial discrimination) differentially influence their supportiveness, using longitudinal data from two samples of African American couples. Among couples that provided observational data ( N = 163 couples), providers who experienced high chronic financial strain behaved less supportively toward their partners, while those who experienced frequent racial discrimination behaved more supportively over a 2-year period. In a second sample of 213 couples over a 3-year period, support providers who experienced financial strain were perceived by their partners as slightly less supportive, while providers who experienced frequent racial discrimination were perceived by their partners as more supportive. Findings suggest that supportiveness in relationships may be differentially shaped by the specific stresses and strains that partners face.

scholarly journals Neighborhood context and financial strain as predictors of marital interaction and marital quality in African American couples

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn E. Cutrona ◽  
Daniel W. Russell ◽  
W. Todd Abraham ◽  
Kelli A. Gardner ◽  
Janet N. Melby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Neighborhood Context ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Marital Interaction ◽  
African American Couples

Racial discrimination, racism-specific support, and self-reported health among African American couples

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shardé McNeil Smith ◽  
Lillie D. Williamson ◽  
Hafeezah Branch ◽  
Frank D. Fincham
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
General Health ◽  
Specific Support ◽  
African American Couples ◽  
Mental And Physical Health

Racial discrimination is a part of the lived experience for African Americans, and it is widely found to have damaging consequences to their mental and physical health; yet, we know less about how romantic partners influence the degree to which racial discrimination can impinge on health outcomes. Using a dyadic approach with heterosexual African American couples ( N = 487), the current study examined the compensatory and stress-buffering effects of racism-specific support (RSS) from the partner on the associations between racial discrimination and one’s own and one’s partner’s self-reported mental, physical, and general health. We found that perceptions of RSS from the partner were associated with better mental and physical health for husbands and better physical and general health for wives, independent of the effects of their own and their partner’s racial discrimination. However, wives showed compromised mental health when their husbands perceived high levels of RSS. Furthermore, among wives who reported low levels of RSS from their partner, wives’ and husbands’ experiences of racial discrimination were associated with wives’ lowered mental health. These findings suggest that couple-level interventions for African Americans should pay specific attention to wives who may carry the burden of their own and their husbands’ experiences of racial discrimination.

scholarly journals Racial discrimination and relationship functioning among African American couples.

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 686-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin A. Lavner ◽  
Allen W. Barton ◽  
Chalandra M. Bryant ◽  
Steven R. H. Beach
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Relationship Functioning ◽  
African American Couples

scholarly journals The Relational Wear and Tear of Everyday Racism Among African American Couples

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Ong ◽  
Betul Urganci ◽  
Anthony L. Burrow ◽  
Tracy DeHart
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Affective Reactivity ◽  
Chronic Stressors ◽  
Wear And Tear ◽  
African American Couples ◽  
Mental And Physical Health

The wear and tear of adapting to chronic stressors such as racism and discrimination can have detrimental effects on mental and physical health. Here, we investigate the wider implications of everyday racism for relationship quality in a sample of 98 heterosexual African American couples. Participants reported on their experiences of racial discrimination and positive and negative affect for 21 consecutive evenings. Using dyadic analyses, we show that independent of age, gender, marital status, income, racial discrimination frequency, neuroticism, and mean levels of affect, participants’ relationship quality was inversely associated with their partner’s negative affective reactivity to racial discrimination. Associations did not vary by gender, suggesting that the effects of affective reactivity were similar for men and women. These findings highlight the importance of a dyadic approach and call for further research examining the role of everyday racism as a key source of stress in the lives of African American couples.

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