Symposium 83 - The Role of Sexual identity, Race, and Income on Individual and Relationship Functioning

Chair(s)

• MS

  Mollie Shin, M.A. (she/her/hers)

  Doctoral Student
  University of Colorado Denver
  Denver, Colorado

Discussant(s)

• 

  Shelby Scott, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Assistant Professor of Psychology
  The University of Texas at San Antonio
  San Antonio, Texas

Presenter(s)

• AW

  Alexandra Wojda-Burlij, M.A. (she/her/hers)

  Doctoral Student
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• EC

  Emily Carrino, M.A. (she/her/hers)

  UNC Chapel Hill
  Durham, North Carolina
• DM

  Darya Magidi, B.S. (she/her/hers)

  Doctoral Student
  University of La Verne
  Los Angeles, California
• MJ

  Madeline Jubran, B.S. (she/her/hers)

  Graduate Student
  Nova Southeastern University
  Plantation, Florida

Healthy long-term romantic relationships have a strong positive influence on an individual mental and physical health and well-being (Dush & Amato, 2005). Individuals from minoritized groups, such as sexual minority individuals, are vulnerable to unique stressors that may affect their intimate relationships (Hequemborg & Brallier, 2009). For example, discrimination, rejection, and having one’s relationship devalued by society can result in poorer individual functioning (e.g., depression and anxiety symptoms), which can subsequently influence relationship functioning. Further, minoritized groups often have less access to culturally sensitive individual and couple resources that could help buffer these threats to well-being compared to non-minoritized groups.  This symposium is a collection of four presentations that examine the role of minority identity in individual and relationship functioning among four different groups of minoritized couples.

The first speaker will describe results from an online study focused on couples and coping. Specifically, analyses compare outcomes between cohabitating couples with varying levels of income (i.e. high vs. low) and examine the influence that attitudes toward stress and temporal focus have on individual and relationship outcomes. The second speaker will present relationship outcomes among a group of healthy functioning, racially diverse, mix-gender couples. The results demonstrated that how criticism  is delivered to a partner is related to relationship outcomes. The third speaker will present results comparing reports of depression, anxiety, and relationship satisfaction between heterosexual people who are in committed relationships with a bisexual+ person compared to two heterosexual people in a relationship. The third talk explores the intersectionality of sexual identity and race in a couple context. Specifically, the presentation evaluated associations between multiple minority stress and intersectional discrimination on relationship satisfaction and depressive symptoms in a sample of LGBTQ-POC women.

All four studies are characterized by widely used measures of individual and relationship functioning, sophisticated analyses, and discussions of minority stress. Additionally, the samples comprise diverse couples, including LGBTQ+ couples, racially minoritized couples, low-income couples, and individuals with multiple minority identities in relationships. Taken together, this set of talks will extend our understanding of the unique individual and relationship outcomes that are associated with different minority groups as well as the role, minority stress plays in individual and couple relationship functioning.  

The discussant, an accomplished scholar who is well-versed in relationship functioning and outcomes among sexual minority and transgender couples and barriers to healthcare for sexual minority women of color, will provide insight into the clinical and research implications of these findings.