Romantic Relationship Commitment Behavior Among Emerging Adult African American Men

• Author: Geoffrey L. Brown,Steven M. Kogan,Tianyi Yu
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12293
• Published date: 01 August 2016
• Date: 01 August 2016

S M. K University of Georgia

T Y University of Georgia∗

G L. B University of Georgia∗∗

Romantic Relationship Commitment Behavior

Among Emerging Adult African American Men

Contextual and intrapersonal factors affecting

the development of African American men’s

romantic relationship commitment-related

behavior were investigated. Socioeconomic

disadvantage during early adolescence was

hypothesized to predict harsh, unsupportive par-

enting practices. Harsh parenting was hypoth-

esized to result in youths’ emotion-regulation

difculties, indicated by elevated levels of

anger during mid-adolescence, particularly

when men were exposed to racial discrimi-

nation. Young African American men’s anger

during mid-adolescence, a consequence of

harsh, unsupportive parenting and racial

discrimination, was expected to predict

commitment-related behavior. Hypotheses were

tested with a sample of rural African American

men participating in a panel study from the ages

of 11 through 21. Data from teachers, parents,

and youths were integrated into a multi-reporter

measurement plan. Results conrmed the

hypothesized associations. Study ndings

indicate that the combination of harsh parenting

and racial discrimination is a powerful

Department of Human Development and Family Science,

123 Dawson Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

30602 (smkogan@uga.edu).

∗Center for Family Research, 1095 College Station Road,

University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602–4527.

∗∗Human Development and Family Science, 123 Dawson

Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.

Key Words: adolescence, African Americans, commit-

ment, intimacy,parent–adolescent relations, youth/emergent

adulthood.

antecedent of young men’s commitment-related

behavior. Anger across mid-adolescence medi-

ated this interaction effect.

Both theory and empirical research have focused

on the ways in which emerging adult roman-

tic relationships unfold over time. By late

adolescence and emerging adulthood, many

relationships become steady, exclusive, and

characterized by high levels of intimacy and

commitment; such relationships establish the

foundation for future family formation (Collins,

Welsh, & Furman, 2009; Karney, Beckett,

Collins, & Shaw, 2007). Studies investigating

sexual health among young African American

men have revealed important challenges to

their development of exclusive, intimate rela-

tionships. During adolescence and emerging

adulthood, disproportionate rates of multi-

ple sexual partnerships characterize African

American men (Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, 2012). Often, men’s reports

of multiple partnerships indicate a sexual con-

currency pattern in which sexual relationships

with different women overlap, although one

woman is considered the primary, steady part-

ner (Senn, Carey, Vanable, Coury-Doniger, &

Urban, 2009). Multiple and concurrent sexual

partnerships have important implications for

men’s and their partners’ sexual health because

such partnerships are related to elevated levels

of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and

unplanned pregnancies (Adimora et al., 2001).

In addition to sexual health-related concerns,

engagement in multiple partnerships, rather

996 Journal of Marriage and Family 78 (August 2016): 996–1012

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12293

Relationship Behavior Among African American Men 997

than serially monogamous relationships, may

have prognostic implications for young men’s

psychosocial development and their formation

of families as adults (Karney et al., 2007).

Research also documents the challenges

that many African American men experi-

ence during later adulthood in developing and

maintaining stable, satisfying romantic rela-

tionships (Amato, 2011). Compared with other

racial/ethnic groups, romantic relationships

among African Americans in general, and

emerging adults in particular, are character-

ized by considerable conict, instability, and

dissatisfaction (Amato, 2011; Kurdek, 2008).

African Americans’ dramatically declining mar-

riage rates since the mid-1980s provide further

evidence of the disproportionate relationship

challenges that they experience (Amato, 2011).

Patterns of young men’s sexual partner-

ing in emerging adulthood and studies of

African American adults’ relationship quality

underscore the importance of investigating

African American emerging adult men’s rela-

tionship commitment behavior. In the context

of romantic relationships, emerging adults’

commitment-related behavior may be charac-

terized by more or less stability, relationship

satisfaction, and sexual delity (Furman & Rose,

2015; Karney et al., 2007). We acknowledge

that, for some emerging adults, relationship

commitment may be the exception rather than

the rule. Some researchers suggest that it is nor-

mative among middle- and upper-class youths

for romantic commitment to be delayed due

to career preparation and trends toward later

family formation (Shulman & Connolly, 2013).

This view is consistent with a perception of

emerging adulthood as a psychosocial mora-

torium, a time of exploration and a form of

extended adolescence (Arnett, 2000). This view

of the emerging adult transition, however, does

not apply to socioeconomically disadvantaged

minority youths (Arnett & Brody, 2008). For a

number of African American men, poor prepa-

ration for work and secondary education, a lack

of family economic resources, and experience

with racial discrimination affect the nature and

prognostic signicance of emerging adulthood

(Arnett & Brody, 2008). In contrast to a period

of experimentation, emerging adulthood is more

likely to have enduring consequences than to

reect a temporary developmental transition.

The emerging adult transition thus pro-

vides an important window for understanding

the development of African American men’s

romantic relationships. Research to date has

documented the role of a range of race-related

stressors in undermining close relationships

among African Americans in general and

men in particular (Bowman, 2006; Johnson,

2010). These stressors include socioeconomic

conditions such as poverty, sociocultural expec-

tations such as race and sex stereotypes, and

sociohistorical processes including racial sub-

ordination and discrimination (Spencer, 2001).

Singly and in combination, these stressors

marginalize African American men in families

(Bowman, 2006) and compel men to develop

coping strategies to deal with harsh environ-

ments (Cunningham & Meunier, 2004; Spencer,

Cunningham, & Swanson, 1995).

Recent research has focused on how exposure

over time to systems of opportunity and con-

straint in African American youths’ lives affect

emerging adult romantic relationships (Kogan,

Lei, et al., 2013; L. G. Simons, Simons, Landor,

Bryant, & Beach, 2014; R. L. Simons, Simons,

Lei, & Landor, 2012). These studies emphasize

how challenging socioeconomic circumstances

not only undermine relationships at a single

time point but also, over time, prompt a range of

emotional responses and coping strategies that

have the potential to affect men’sengagement in

satisfying and committed relationships (Kogan,

Lei, et al., 2013; L. G. Simons et al., 2014).

For example, socioeconomic circumstances

(Brody et al., 2014; R. L. Simons & Burt, 2011;

R. L. Simons et al., 2012) and other forms of

race-related adversity (Brody et al., 2008) affect

parent–youth relationships, which provide a

foundation for intimacy in future romantic

relationships (Furman & Rose, 2015). Investiga-

tions that specically address African American

men’s commitment-related behavior, how-

ever, have focused primarily on public health

issues such as HIV risk and teenage father-

hood. Studies of the developmental processes

that shape young men’s commitment-related

behavior are rare. This constitutes grounds for

concern because considerable evidence reveals

sex differences in relationship commitment

development and experience (Giordano, Long-

more, & Manning, 2006). Thus, studies that

combine men and women may miss impor-

tant, sex-specic information regarding the

development of commitment.