Perceived marital quality and stability of intermarried couples: a study of Asian-white, Black-white, and Mexican-white couples

The purpose of this study is to compare intermarried and intramarried couples with respect to their marital happiness and perceived marital stability White, black, Mexican, or Asian spouses in black-white, Mexican-white or Asian-white unions were compared to intramarried couples based on data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households. The final sample included 4,522 married couples. The results suggest that differences in marital happiness and perceived stability between intermarried and intramarried couples vary by race/ethnicity and gender. Our findings indicate that only interracially married white females reported significantly lower marital happiness and stability than their intramarried counterparts. Conversely, spouses in Mexican male-white female and white male-Asian female unions reported significantly higher marital quality and/or stability than their white counterparts.