Unlearning the narrative: integrating relationship science and machine learning to identify the determinants of African American adults' romantic relationship satisfaction
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Meeting name
Sponsors
Date
Journal Title
Format
Thesis
Subject
Abstract
Foundational theories in relationship science offer generalized explanations of relationship processes and outcomes that do not acknowledge the central role that race and racism may play in structuring intimate partnerships. This omission is particularly consequential given the salience of racial and ethnic stratification for U.S. social systems and disparities in relationship outcomes. For example, scholars argue that the weight of historical and contemporary racial oppression may be reflected more deeply in African American partnerships relative to groups of similar economic and social status and have used terms like residual effects of slavery and post-traumatic slave syndrome to draw attention to the enduring impact that these practices have had on the interpersonal outcomes of African Americans. These findings suggest that although there may determinants of relationship quality and adjustment that are germane to most relationships, there may be contextual and sociocultural factors there may be considerations that harbor unique significance for the relationship outcomes of certain groups. The current study aimed to test this assertation using data from the Family and Community Health study (N = 306) and employed random forest analyses to identify a comprehensive set of individual, relational, familial, and contextual and sociocultural predictors that demonstrated high utility in predicting relationship satisfaction for African Americans. A total of 23 features were identified as the most proximal predictors of relationship satisfaction for African American couples and were able to predict 48 percent of the variation in this outcome. Constructs that were most useful for predicting relationship satisfaction were general and relationship-specific and have been highlighted in several relationship process theories, including the VSA model, attachment theory, social exchange theory, social exchange theory, marital paradigm theory, interpersonal process models of intimacy, and ecological perspectives of romantic relationship quality and adjustment. Findings from this dissertation broaden understanding of the utility of foundational theories in predicting relationship satisfaction for African American couples and suggest that traditional paradigms and constructs in relationship science are an important starting point for understanding the correlates of relationship satisfaction for African American couples. In tandem, results also suggests that existing frameworks can be augmented by the inclusion of socioculturally relevant predictors.
Table of Contents
DOI
PubMed ID
Degree
Ph. D.