Towards Successful Intercultural Relationships

In response to the rising public interest in understanding intercultural couples' relational experiences, particularly how couples respond to their differences in culture, I propose a new construct—relational cultural intelligence (RCI)—to describe an individual's ability to learn and apply cultural knowledge about oneself and their partner in a relationship. In this dissertation, I define the construct of RCI and describe the development of a preliminary RCI scale. I conceptualize RCI as a type of social intelligence, and it entails three essential intellectual dimensions—awareness, skills, and knowledge. I surveyed 186 individuals who self-identified in a current intercultural romantic relationship. The findings of this study provided evidence for the validity and reliability of a three-factor scale with a total of 12 items. Findings also showed that RCI was related to important aspects of relational experiences such as relational stress, dyadic coping, commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Possible implications and future directions of RCI are discussed.