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Carroll, N. M. (2024). Faith, Hope, and Love: An Investigation of Hope's Impact on Relationship Sanctification and Satisfaction for African American Couples. Retrieved from https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/Carroll_fsu_0071E_18700
Religion and spirituality are associated with many positive outcomes for partners in committed relationships. Couples with a greater religiosity and spirituality have better relationship quality and greater relationship stability. However, research highlights a paradox in which these findings do not translate the same for African American couples in that though they report greater importance and prevalence of religion and spirituality, these couples have poorer relationship outcomes, particularly related to marriage. Scholars have found that consequences of historic and present-day racism and discrimination create unique challenges for African American couples in the formation and maintenance of committed relationships. This is of significance because partnership, especially marriage, offers individual and systemic benefits to those within it. Spirituality consistently appears as a significant factor for this population and an increasing number of studies have found it to be associated with positive relationship outcomes for African American couples. Hope is related to spirituality and has been found to be protective against the negative effects of racism and discrimination for African American individuals. This study sought to investigate how hope moderates the relationship between spirituality and relationship outcomes and qualitatively explored African American couples' views of the impact of spirituality and religion on their relationship satisfaction. The Relational Spirituality Framework was used as a guide to discuss how the interplay of spirituality and relationship outcomes operates for African American couples.
African American Couples, Hope, Relationship Satisfaction, Relationships, Religion and Spirituality, Sanctification
Date of Defense
March 18, 2024.
Submitted Note
A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Human Development and Family Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references.
Advisory Committee
Lenore M. McWey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Katrinell Davis, University Representative; Jonathan Kimmes, Committee Member; Penny Ralston, Committee Member; Gregory Harris, Committee Member.
Publisher
Florida State University
Identifier
Carroll_fsu_0071E_18700
Carroll, N. M. (2024). Faith, Hope, and Love: An Investigation of Hope's Impact on Relationship Sanctification and Satisfaction for African American Couples. Retrieved from https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/Carroll_fsu_0071E_18700