Financial Issues in Strong African American Marriages: A Strengths‐Based Qualitative Approach

• Author: Bonnie L. Anderson,Linda Skogrand,Cassandra Chaney,Jeffrey P. Dew
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12248
• Published date: 01 April 2017
• Date: 01 April 2017

J P. D Brigham Young University

B L. A  L S Utah State University

C C Louisiana State University

Financial Issues in Strong African American

Marriages: A Strengths-Based Qualitative Approach

Objective: Weexamined the role nancial issues

played in African Americans’ marriages using a

strengths-based perspective.

Background: Few studies have examined the

importance of nances in African Americans’

marriages. Those that have done so have mostly

focused on money as a stressful contextual

problem. Allowing African American couples to

describe their own marital experiences expands

our understanding regarding the interface of

nances and relationships.

Method: Using qualitative data from 37 African

American couples (N=74 individuals) who felt

they had strong marriages, we took a phe-

nomenological approach to identify themes in

the data.

Results: Many participants portrayed money as

a stressor. Furthermore, participants discussed

nancial behaviors and attitudes that helped

their marriages be strong. Finally, participants

described transcending, or rising above, nan-

cial issues.

Conclusion: The participants in this study,

African Americans who felt they were in strong

marriages, talked about the marital role of

nances in multiple ways. It was clear that

they actively strived to shape the way that

School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo,

UT 84602. E-mail: jeff_dew@byu.edu

Key Words: African American, Black, nances, marriage,

qualitative.

nancial issues inuenced their marriages,

whether through making decisions that would

help them nancially and relationally or by

shifting their focus to more important matters

like the well-being of family members.

Implications: These ndings offer researchers

new ideas about the intersection of money, fam-

ily, and race, and show diversity among African

American couples. The ndings may also help

practitioners recognize both the circumstances

by which nances are stressors in some African

American marriages, and how some African

American couples navigate nancial challenges

while maintaining strong relationships.

Compared to other racial or ethnic groups,

African Americans face greater economic

instability which is often rooted in social and

structural inequalities. Census data from 2014,

for example, shows that the median family

income for African American households was

$35,398, whereas the median income for White

households was $56,866 (DeNavas-Walt &

Proctor, 2015). Further, compared to Whites,

African Americans possess lower levels of

nancial assets, lost more wealth during the

Great Recession (2007–2009), and have expe-

rienced increasing wealth disparities during the

economic recovery since the Great Recession

(Kocher & Fry, 2014; Shapiro, Meschede, &

Osoro, 2013). For example, White households’

mean wealth was 10 times higher than the

Family Relations 66 (April 2017): 287–301 287

DOI:10.1111/fare.12248