Religiosity and Marital Stability Among Black American and White American Couples*

• Date: 01 April 2008
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00493.x
• Author: Edna Brown,Jose A. Bauermeister,Terri L. Orbuch
• Published date: 01 April 2008

Religiosity and Marital Stability Among Black American

and White American Couples*

Edna Brown Terri L. Orbuch Jose A. Bauermeister**

Abstract: We examine the effects of subjective and organizational religious participation on marital stability over

time for urban Black American couples and White American couples who participated in a longitudinal project.

Our findings indicated that the role religiosity plays in the stability of marriage over time varied by gender and race.

Black husbands and wives reported that religion was more important to them and that they attended religious serv-

ices more frequently than White husbands and wives. Greater service attendance was predictive of decreased odds of

divorce, only when reported by wives. Interaction effects revealed that the effect was more notable among White

wives. Practitioners should consider the diversity between and within couples and the sociohistorical contexts in

which marriages are embedded.

Key Words: gender, marital stability, race, religiosity.

Introduction

The literature on marriage is dominated by research

examining the factors that lead to marital instability

or divorce/separation. Although there is a lack of

consensus about the specific factors associated with

divorce, a number of researchers have focused on the

objective social and economic conditions that are

related to marital stability (Orbuch, House, Mero, &

Webster, 1996; White & Edwards, 1990). More

recently, there has been an interest in the role that

religiosity plays in the stability of marital relations

(Mahoney, Pargament, Tarakeshwar, & Swank,

2001). Religiosity is typically assessed via subjective

religious participation (religious beliefs) and organi-

zational religious participation (service attendance)

(Pargament, 1997); both aspects of religiosity may be

resources that contribute to marital stability among

couples—particularly for Black Americans (Sherkat

& Ellison, 1999). For example, Wilson and Musick

(1996) provided evidence that greater subjective and

organizational religious participation was associated

with enhanced family functioning and higher marital

satisfaction. Furthermore, Call and Heaton (1997)

found that when spouses participated in organiza-

tional religious activities together, couples were less

likely to divorce over time. Although most religious

doctrines and congregations promote attitudes for

the sanctity of marriage (Bumpass & Sweet, 1972;

Hodge, 1996), with the underlying assumption that

religious participation may encourage couples to

remain married and avoid divorce, we acknowledge

that divorce is not always bad or unwarranted.

In this study, we examined the links between reli-

giosity and marital stability over the first 7 years of

marriage for a representative sample of urban Black

American couples and White American couples who

participated in a longitudinal project. The proposed

research had two specific goals. First, we examined

whether there were gender and racial differences in

subjective and organizational religious participation

among Black American and White American cou-

ples. We also assessed the perceptions of each spouse

*The research in this paper was supported by a grant from the National Institute for Child and Human Development (HD40778) to the second author.

**Edna Brown is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Connecticut, 348 Mansfield Road, Unit

2058, Storrs, CT 06269 (edna.brown@uconn.edu). Terri L. Orbuch is a research professor in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and Pro-

fessor in the Department of Sociology at the Oakland University, ISR, 470 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (orbuch@umich.edu). Jose A. Bauermeister is

a postdoctoral fellow in the New York State Psychiatric Institute, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit

15, New York, NY 10032 (jb2855@columbia.edu).

Family Relations, 57 (April 2008), 186–197. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2008 by the National Council on Family Relations.