Queer Interethnic Relationships: Couple-Level Minority Stress and Resilience for Intersectionally Marginalized Partners

Interethnic relationships and same-sex relationships continue to increase in the United States, underscoring the need for research that better reflects the realities of contemporary couples and the factors that support well-being. One group that remains underrepresented in research is queer people of color (QPOC), including opportunities for quantitative intersectional research that account for relationship dynamics.

This gap is the focus of Queer Interethnic Relationships: Couple-Level Minority Stress and Resilience for Intersectionally Marginalized Partners, an MRI-funded project led by Sree Sinha, PhD while ze was at the University of Denver. The project is grounded in the Couple-Level Minority Stress (CLMS) framework, which examines stressors that arise not only from individual identities but also from being in a relationship that is societally marginalized—stressors that can shape both relational well-being and individual health outcomes.

Using a sample of 249 QPOC in interethnic relationships with White partners, the study examined whether greater endorsement of couple-level minority stressors was associated with lower couple satisfaction and lower individual flourishing. The sample reflected substantial diversity across ethnicity, sexual orientation, U.S. region, relationship structure, and gender (including 36.2% consensually non-monogamous relationships and 39.4% identifying as transgender or gender diverse). Key covariates—including sexual orientation, gender, marital status, cohabitation, heterosexuality of a romantic partner, and age—were identified and accounted for in analyses.

Findings indicated that higher couple-level minority stress was significantly associated with lower couple satisfaction and lower individual flourishing, with regression models explaining about 20% of the variance in each outcome. In addition to documenting these associations, the project explored potential protective factors that may support resilience among intersectionally marginalized couples. Stronger couple identity, affective dyadic coping, and ethnosexual identity strength were examined as moderators; evidence of interaction effects for each of these emerged for individual flourishing, but not couple satisfaction, with buffering effects of minority stress present at high levels of each protective factor.

This MRI-funded work responds to calls for more robust quantitative approaches to studying intersectional experiences while maintaining a strengths-based emphasis on the factors that may support thriving. By examining both individual and dyadic outcomes, the project contributes to a growing evidence base on well-being and resilience in multiply marginalized communities and relationships, offering relational analysis and quantitative intersectional methods for better supporting QPOC in interethnic romantic relationships.

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Sophie Suberville