How do individuals in intercultural romantic relationships use communication strategies to maintain their relationship? A qualitative analysis.
Abstract
Intercultural relationships—romantic relationships where one partner is outside the other’s racial, ethnic, religious, and/or language group—are a growing sociodemographic group. Individuals in such relationships must navigate their cultural differences to mitigate the negative effects of the challenges they face and ameliorate the benefits of their relationship. Culture can impact preferences in communicating about these differences and consequently relationship maintenance. Yet little is known about how intercultural couples communicate about their cultural differences to effectively maintain their relationship. To address this gap, I conducted semi-structured, virtual, interviews with 23 intercultural couples and found that intercultural couples’ overall preference and efficacy of some communication strategies over others in four contexts: (1) recognize and reconcile their cultural differences, (2) navigate stigma and discrimination, (3) navigate regular relationship maintenance, and (4) maximize benefits of the relationship. This work highlights the functionality of communication strategies for the quality of intercultural romantic relationships.