The number of intercultural marriages and families has grown significantly. This qualitative study explores the strengths and challenges of multicultural families and identifies key decisions that intercultural couples face, and resources that can enrich the multicultural family's experience. The findings of this study will reveal valuable insights and strategies for intentional parenting and help multicultural families maximize their strengths and minimize their challenges. Data was collected from three groups of intercultural couples. Group A consisted of 4 couples raising children birth through pre-school. Group B had 4 couples raising children pre-school through middle school, and group C had 4 couples raising children from middle school through high school. The groups were interviewed on the following areas: strengths and challenges, language, religion, family traditions, customs and food, conflict resolution, perceived difference between their children and families and monocultural children and families, and outside resources.

In the United States the debate concerning transracial adoption and gay and/ or lesbian adoption has been going on since the 1970s. This research used the co-cultural theory of communication to explore how the marginalized population of gay and lesbian transracial adoptive (TRA) parents communicated with the other culturally dominant members of their society. It then analyzed the communication behaviors found to see if any differences existed in their interactions. Finally, the communication behaviors were examined to see what impact they might have on the ability of parents to be effective TRA parents. This research included eight in-depth interviews with gay and lesbian TRA parents. In these interviews, these parents were asked to explain, through their own 7 personal experiences, what it was like to be part of this cultural group. Their experiences were then analyzed using the methods described in the co-cultural communication theory. Results showed that gay and lesbian TRA parents predominantly employed the assertive accommodation and the nonassertive assimilation communication orientations in their interactions with others. Of the two, the parents overwhelmingly employed assertive accommodation. Results showed three important differences regarding how the parents employed communication orientations or enacted co-cultural practices in their interactions. Results also showed that the employment of the assertive accommodation orientation was likely to have a positive effect on the parents' ability to be effective TRA parents. The employment of the nonassertive assimilation orientation was found generally to have t mixed results. I hope that insight into the communication behaviors of this population found through this study will help clarify the most effective communication methods for these parents to learn in order to raise healthy and happy children of color.

The study offers a practical theological examination of three congregational youth ministries located in three different multi-racial and multi-cultural contexts in the Northeastern region of the United States. In the first move of this study, I present findings from ethnographic research in the three congregational youth ministries and argue that each congregation displays a disconnect between their practices of evangelism and discipleship and young people’s questions about and experiences with race, racism, and racial identity. In the second move of this study, I argue that this disconnect is due to the pervasiveness of post-racialism in the church and society, understood as a collection of social practices that promote colorblindness as a virtue and perpetuate systemic racism as a habitus by fostering an aesthetic of forgetfulness regarding racial violence and oppression. In light of this, I suggest that a way forward in congregational youth ministries in multiracial and multicultural contexts requires a disruption of and resistance to post-racial aesthetics for the sake of meeting students’ needs. In the third move, I turn attention to Martin Luther King, Jr. to forge a way forward, as King is often taken to be a normative source for interracial congregations. However, while such interracial congregations tend to rely on a limited view of King that interprets him as an inspiration for embracing post-racialism, I argue that King’s theological praxis can be a critical resource for discerning how to resist post-racialism. In concluding the dissertation, I offer suggestions for how current practitioners can begin taking steps toward resisting post-racialism in their work with youth and young adults. / 2025-01-31T00:00:00Z

This study analyzes the reactions of interracial relationships within the South Asian Diaspora via film and literature focused on the United States and England. The films examined are Mississippi Masala (1992) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and the literature-utilized focuses on cultural identity, interracial dating, the importance of marriage, the Indian community, and gender roles focused on women within the diaspora. The films used encourage the idea of interracial relationships as acceptable and give South Asian women the confidence to be more independent. The intention of this research is to analyze the importance of cultural blending, independence, heritage, and traditional values. The focus behind this research is to understand the battle of traditional versus modern roles for women in the South Asian diaspora, and how independence can be viewed as a form of dishonoring and humiliating their families when they step outside of the cultural box. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Over the past decade, policymakers have promoted marriage as a pathway to improve child outcomes in single-parent households. However, previous research on single mothers who later married in the United States has failed to examine how the structural advantages and disadvantages of race influence post-birth marriages and the advantage they may confer. I investigate how white advantage—the human- and social-capital benefits that come from being a white individual—acts as a resource distributed differently across three couple configurations. I predict that having access to white advantage via a white parent will improve child academic achievement. Using the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 1998 (ECLS-K 1998) and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2011 (ECLS-K 2011), I compare children from white monoracial marriages, white-Hispanic interracial marriages, and Hispanic monoracial marriages. My results suggest that white advantage in the home increases access to critical resources that improve child academic achievement. Additionally, I find further evidence of Hispanic disadvantage as children from Hispanic monoracial marriages score lower on math and reading tests than children from white monoracial marriages, even after accounting for resource and demographic factors.

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Using a year 2000 national racial poll conducted by the New York Times, I analyze Whites' approval of interracial marriage. I utilize the contact hypothesis, as originally formulated by Gordon Allport, to develop a conceptual model of White's attitudes toward interracial marriage. Specifically I propose and develop an additional dimension of the contact hypothesis, which accounts for the context in which interracial contacts occur. I do so by examining several specific social settings in which White respondents report experiencing contact with Blacks. The contexts examined are ordered in terms of the type of contact they likely provide, from close, personal contact to superficial and hierarchical contact. The results indicate that the type of contact engendered by a variety of contexts is an important factor in determining attitudes about interracial marriage. The contacts in most of the social settings are associated with friendship, yet a majority of the contexts are also related to approval of interracial marriage even when extraneous factors such as friendship, age, gender, income, political party, frequency of religious service attendance, and region are controlled for statistically. The findings provide support for the consideration and utilization of the context of contact as an additional dimension of the contact hypothesis.

Research suggests that interracial couples are more distressed and have lower stability compared to their endogamous counterparts. Interracial relationships involving Whites and Asians, however, seem to be an exception. To explore this exception, the pathways to relationship stability among endogamous and exogamous Asian-White couples were compared. Using Analysis of Covariance, partner empathy, social approval, relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability for endogamous and exogamous Asian-White couples were compared, while holding length of relationship constant. Actor and partner effects of partner empathy and social approval on relationship satisfaction and relationship stability, as well as that of relationship satisfaction on relationship stability, were compared between the racial pair groups using structural equation modeling. Endogamous Asian couples consistently scored lowest in relational and social factors, as well as in relationship outcomes. Relational factors more strongly predict relationship satisfaction and stability among White men regardless of partner's race than among Asian men. Empathy predicts relationship satisfaction and stability among exogamous women no differently than among endogamous women. Social contexts, however, influence relationship outcomes differently between endogamous and exogamous couples. Lastly, both actor and partner effects of relationship satisfaction on relationship stability did not differ across groups.