Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 28, 2025

Visually Sexing Loggerhead Shrike Lanius Ludovicianus Using Plumage Coloration and Pattern
Published on: March 8, 2020
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND THE WEATHERING OF NONMARITAL RELATIONSHIPS
Ashley B Barr1, Ronald L Simons2, Steven R H Beach3
1455 Park Hall, Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY 14260.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of perceived racial discrimination on the satisfaction and dissolution of different-gender, nonmarital relationships among African American young adults.
Background:
Racial discrimination has proven detrimental to relationship quality among married couples. Racial disparities in relationship processes begin long before marriages form, however. Racial discrimination may also weather and disrupt nonmarital relationships earlier in the life course.
Method:
Survey data from African American young adult couples (N = 407) from the Family and Community Health Study were used to assess the associations between each partner's experience of racial discrimination, relationship satisfaction, and relationship dissolution using structural equation modeling.
Results:
Results support a stress spillover perspective in that racial discrimination experienced by both men and women increased the likelihood of relationship dissolution through reduced satisfaction. No support was found for a stress buffering perspective.
Conclusion:
Racial discrimination appears to distress and, ultimately, disrupt nonmarital relationships among African American young adult couples.
Implications:
Given the role of relationship quality and stability in promoting health and well-being, understanding how discrimination impacts the unfolding of relationships, or linked lives, across the life course is essential to untangling and addressing the "chains of disadvantage" identified by Umberson et al. (2014) as central to racial disparities in health and well-being.
Related Concept Videos
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Stereotype Content Model
Relationship Formation
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
Robbers Cave
Fundamental Attribution Error

