Ethnic differences in relationship orientation, marital quality and ambulatory blood pressure

Mexican Americans typically have better cardiovascular health than Caucasians, despite being relatively economically disadvantaged. Given research indicating the importance of relationship quality on one's health, our study examined whether certain relationship orientations (eg, communal or exchange) differed between Caucasians and Mexican Americans and if these orientations could help explain the Hispanic Paradox. We recruited 582 adults from a community being primarily Caucasian (40%) and foreign-born Mexican Americans (55%). Participants wore 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitors and completed self-report measures of relationship satisfaction and relationship orientation. Results indicated that Caucasians tended to have more of a communal relationship orientation compared to foreign-born Mexican Americans. Communal orientation was predictive of higher relationship satisfaction and while higher relationship satisfaction predicted lower systolic blood pressure when ethnicity was added into the model this relationship was eliminated and foreign-born Mexican Americans had higher ABP compared to Caucasians. Even though communal and exchange relationship orientation don't seem to give us any more information to unravel the Hispanic Paradox, there are important ethnic differences in how we engage in marriage relationships and future research will need to examine the health effects of these differences.