Intermarriage and mother-child relationships

Abstract

Research indicates that when adult children marry, ties to parents weaken. Yet less is known about how spousal characteristics, and specifically, spouse's race or ethnicity, affect ties to the family of origin. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to ask how interracial/ethnic marriage, compared to same-race/ethnicity marriage, is associated with ties to mothers among young adults in the United States. Results indicate that offspring who are intermarried differ little in their relationships to mothers compared to those who married samerace/ethnicity partners. However, findings from this study suggest that intermarriage may have greater consequences for some groups, such as Blacks, compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Overall, the results highlight how intermarriage has a relatively limited effect on offspring relationships with mothers and suggest a role for future research that examines how ties to parents during adolescence may shape partner choices during adulthood.

Parent’s Just Don’t Understand: Parental Support, Religion and Depressive Symptoms among Same-Race and Interracial Relationships

“…The loss of parental support, perhaps as a consequence of a child's relationship, may result in unfavorable health consequences. Surprisingly, little is known about how partner characteristics, including partner's race, influence parental support (for exception see Yahirun 2019). As previously suggested, however, there is some evidence that family opposition is a salient factor in interracial relationships.…”

Housing Attainment of Interracial Couples

“…Intermarriage per se does not guarantee wholesale social acceptance (Song, 2009). Older individuals oppose interracial unions at higher rates than younger individuals (Livingston & Brown, 2017;Twine, 1999;Yahirun, 2019). Furthermore, US adults are also less accepting of serious and long-term interracial unions like marriages than they are of short-term and more casual relationships (Herman & Campbell, 2012).…”

Interracial Couples and Intergenerational Coresidence: The Role of Race/Ethnicity

“…Yet, surprisingly, sizeable shares of interracial couples and mixed-race individuals continue to report experiencing family opposition and ostracism from kin (Bratter and Eschbach 2006;Gonlin, 2023;Kroeger and Williams 2011;Livingston and Brown 2017;Parker et al, 2015). These reports have kindled the question: does the decision to intermarry weaken ties with one's kin and reduce exchanges between interracial couples and their families of origin (Bratter and Whitehead 2018;Da Costa 2007;Yahirun, 2019).…”