An intersectional approach to understanding minority stressors and relationship quality in sexual and gender minority women's same-gender interracial/interethnic intimate relationships

Abstract

Women in relationships that are both same-gender and interracial/interethnic experience unique minority stressors. Intersectionality theory suggests that minority stressors related to marginalization across sexual identity, gender, race, and ethnicity create synergistic experiences of minority stressors. Arguably, these intersectional stressors expand beyond individual-level lived experiences to also impact one's romantic relationship. The goals of this study were to: 1) examine stressors and relationship satisfaction among women in same-gender relationships; and 2) test whether those associations differed by the racial/ethnic composition of the couple. In a sample of 622 individual women in same-gender couple relationships, 33.4% of whom were in interracial/interethnic relationships, we tested differences in individual- and relationship-level minority stressors. SGM women in interracial relationships reported more stress related to stigma of their relationship than women in monoracial relationships. Across all participants, both individual-level general stressors and relationship-level (lack of support and lack of familial integration) minority stressors were associated with lowered relationship satisfaction. Our findings have implications for relationship-level interventions to address unique experiences of diverse populations facing multiple sources of stressors. More research is needed, including research using dyadic data to understand minority stress processes that occur between partners.

Keywords: Same-gender relationships; interracial relationships; intersectionality; minority stressors; relationship quality; stressors.