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

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.

Holy and Helping: The Role of Sanctification in the Communal Coping of Older African American Couples

Disproportionately affected by numerous relational stressors (e.g., financial strain, morbidity), older African American couples frequently find solace in religion and each other. Research notes that both married and cohabiting couples effectively respond to difficult situations by sharing the ownership of a stressor and organizing a collaborative, collective response. However, little is known about the influence of religion on shared coping experiences, particularly among older African American couples. This study examined dyadic data from the Strong African American Couples Project to capture the influence of relational sanctification on the communal coping practices of married and cohabiting older African American couples. The sample included 194 African American couples (146 married and 48 cohabiting) between the ages of 50 and 86 years. With the use of Actor Partner Independence Models, this study found that men’s sanctification predicted both their own communal coping and their partner’s communal coping. However, there were no significant effects when women’s sanctification was used as a predictor of communal coping among older African American couples. These findings are both important and novel, because these relationships had never before been examined within the United States, much less among older African American couples. Similar to existing research among majority White couples, this research finds that men’s religiosity may be a more influential predictor of relational outcomes than women’s religiosity. Such findings offer a valuable foundation for future studies seeking to consider how relational sanctification and communal coping may impact other outcomes associated with the romantic relationships of older African Americans.

Can Working Together Buffer Depression Among Older, Religious African American Couples?

Depression is a growing concern among older African Americans, as many within this group hesitate to seek professional help from psychiatrists or counselors. Instead, existing literature notes that older African Americans frequently utilize informal social support networks (e.g., church leaders) to respond to stress and buffer the negative effects of depression and depressive symptoms. Yet, little is known about the shared coping practices of older African American couples in relation to depression. Given the commonly noted high levels of religiosity among African Americans, this study examined communal coping as a mediator between sanctification and depression for older African American couples. This study utilized the dyadic data of 194 (146 married and 48 cohabiting) African American couples between the ages of 50 and 86 years. Capturing data with the Revised Sanctification of Marriage scale, the Communal Coping scale, and the Major Depression Inventory, bias-corrected bootstrap analysis revealed that men’s relationship sanctification and women’s depression was partially mediated by men’s, as well as the sum of men’s and women’s, communal coping in married couples. Further, men’s relationship sanctification and men’s depression was partially mediated by men’s, as well as the sum of men’s and women’s, communal coping. In addition, women’s sanctification was positively associated with men’s depression, directly. These findings are valuable in understanding the complex buffers, and contributors, to depression among older African American couples who may identify closely with religion but prefer the support of a partner over professional care.

Relational Sanctity as a Contributor to Forgiveness: Dyadic Data From Older African American Couples

Although research finds that healthy romantic relationships can provide several benefits in older adulthood, few studies examine the relational characteristics of older African American couples. Further, despite positive associations between religiosity and age, particularly among African Americans, a dearth of dyadic data consider the importance of religious constructs within the relationships of older African Americans. To address this gap, this study utilized dyadic data from the Strong African American Couples Project to examine the interconnection between relational sanctity and forgiveness among married and cohabiting older African American couples. A total of 194 African American couples (146 married and 48 cohabiting) aged 50 to 86 years were included in the analysis, and Actor Partner Independence Models were used to test the relational effects of sanctity and forgiveness. Findings revealed that no significant effects existed when women’s relational sanctity was the predictor variable. However, men’s relational sanctity had a significant positive association with both his own forgiveness of his partner and his perception of his partner’s forgiveness. These findings have valuable implications for professionals engaging older African American couples. First, this study helps to counter the often deficit-focused literature on African American couples by highlighting the potentially stabilizing influence of viewing one’s relationship as sacred. Second, this study offers a rare glimpse into the aspects of men’s religiosity that may be more consequential than women’s. Both practitioners and clergy could use this information to inform counseling efforts that seek to build on the strengths of married and cohabiting older African American couples.

Childhood Maltreatment Amplifies the Association Between Relationship Functioning and Depressive Symptoms Among Rural African American Couples

Despite considerable literature documenting associations between relationship functioning and depressive symptoms, there has been relatively little direct examination of this association among African American couples. Likewise, little research has investigated factors that may exacerbate this association. The current study addressed this gap by investigating longitudinal associations between relationship functioning and depressive symptoms among 344 rural African American couples and by examining whether experiences of childhood maltreatment (i.e., childhood physical neglect and childhood physical abuse) amplify this association. Results indicated relationship functioning and depressive symptoms were negatively associated, initially and over time, for both men and women. Additionally, childhood maltreatment moderated several of these associations, such that associations between relationship functioning and depressive symptoms were generally strongest for those reporting greater levels of childhood maltreatment. This pattern of results suggests that experiences of childhood maltreatment may amplify negative associations between adult relationship functioning and depressive symptoms among African American couples, providing further evidence that adverse family-of-origin experiences can contribute to negative consequences later in the life course.

Mean Level and Variability in Affect and Perceived Regard: A Dyadic Daily Diary Study of African American Couples

High levels of positive affect and low levels of negative affect have been repeatedly tied to better individual and relational well-being. However, research has largely focused on mean levels of affect whereas the day-to-day unfolding of affect and its impact on romantic relationships remain unclear. Here, we examined the links between affect variability, mean levels of affect, and changes in perceptions of partner regard —the extent to which people believe that their partners value and accept them—. One hundred and eighty African American couples (N = 360) reported how positively they thought their partner viewed them in two sessions (T1 and T2), separated by a 21-day diary burst in which participants reported on their positive and negative affect. Using a dyadic analysis, we found that high levels of actor negative affect variability were associated with lower positive perceived regard at T2 controlling for perceived regard at T1. This finding did not hold when controlling for mean levels of actor and partner negative affect. There is no evidence of positive affect variability on perceived regard, but the mean level of actor positive affect was associated with more favorable perceived regard. These results highlight the importance of controlling for mean levels of affect when examining affect dynamics.