Intercultural Couples’ Relationships

Intercultural Couples’ Relationships

Literature Review

Intimacy

Historically, most ethnic and racial groups have acknowledged, described, and separated gender roles for females and males along with their expectations relating to the initiation of sexual intimacy that vary for various cultures. A marriage among intercultural couples would least experience the occurrence of sexual problems due to contradictory beliefs of sexual intimacy for each gender that can alter the development of the relationship (Bustamante, Nelson, Henriksen & Monakes, 2011). In Hispanic cultures, for example, the marriage connection and supposition of wife and husband roles drastically rework the couple’s sexual relationships. Even though the couples may find sex enjoyable before marriage, the companion may be anticipated to satisfy the sexual needs of her husband. On the reverse, the husband may expect democratic engagement in sexual dalliances with other women. The shift in such sudden expectations occurs in a couple’s relationship; it may be shocking and lead to discomfort for the intercultural couple.

Renalds (2011) conducted the effects of intercultural marriage among Korean couples and found that the culture values virginity before the marriage. The research has shown that Korean and Caucasian couples struggled with remaining sexually intimate at the time of dating since the women still subscribed to the traditional value of maintaining their virginity for a prospective husband. The Caucasian male partner depicted a more permissive perspective of sex and struggled to comprehend the challenges of his partner. This is an additional example of the impact of intercultural values relating to sexuality on the relationship and the factors dependence on the couple’s marital status may lead to discord for the couple (Renalds, 2011). In monocultural settings, however, the Korean men were found to have mastered the traditional expectations of their women and had an easy time understanding the struggles of their couples before marriage. The values of Korean males and females regarding sexual intimacy were found to be matching, unlike for the Korean females and Caucasian male benefits of intimacy. In this regard, the intercultural relationship presents internal problems because of the misunderstanding of cultural values from both ends of beliefs.

According to Tien (2013), sexuality is not the sole factor determining the level of intimacy in a relationship. Equally, it is essential for couples to direct love to each other in ways other than sex in a bid to communicate to the intimacy felt towards one another through hugging, holding hands, kissing, and cuddling. In Tien’s study, a Caucasian/ Latino couple disagreed about the avenues of articulating affection in their bond. The Caucasian wife complained of being loved at times resulting from lack of verbal expression. To that effect, she declined to react to the physical affection directed by her Latino partner. The wife’s refusal to turn, consequently made the husband feel unloved in the relationship. In the experience of the couple, individual culture remained the primary determinant of approaches of expressing love to one another. The differences in culture meant that expression of affection affected the negotiation of love in their relationship. In the research, the authors concluded that the intercultural relations affected spousal support during intimacy.

Openness

In relationships, openness usually occurs as an intrapsychic aspect that denotes a personal difference in the function and structure of the mind. Zhou, Wang, Chen, Zhang and Zhou (2017) writes that openness is a determinant of creativity, liberal thinking, emotionality, artistic interest, and adventurousness. In intimate relationships, openness promotes relationship quality due to the inherent elements of personality and characteristics. The substantial study establishes both the longitudinal and cross-sectional sample and predicts a weak correlation between one’s openness and self-evaluated quality of the same cultural relationship. Zhou and collages (2017) also reported that a higher degree of openness predicted a lower level of marital satisfaction and likelihood of termination after some years in monocultural couples. However, Tien (2013) found that openness among intercultural couples positively predict external relationship satisfaction while indicated that the companion’s openness characteristic was a negative predictor of internal or spousal support. According to Zhou et al. (2017), male’s openness in intercultural relationships could benefit the perceived marital quality but not vice versa.

Lee, Balkin and Fernandez (2017) found that increased levels of openness of intercultural marriage yielded more occasions for actively engage, unreserved, and honest with others, which subsidize to external support from a different culture. A higher degree of openness and realization among intercultural coupes play a significant role in the willingness to discuss and solve spousal issues, such as conflicts and remain conscientious to their companion’s ideas and feelings. The above personality traits reflect the potential internal support elements of intercultural marriage, leading to heightened stability and resilience in the relationship.

In Asian monoculture couples, Lee, Balkin and Fernandez (2017) reported that higher levels of acculturation of couples from the same culture might serve as one of the coping mechanisms to manage cultural differences. Advanced levels of openness in intercultural marriages is to help couples to become increasingly open to differences, negotiate, and discuss conflicts. Openness in intercultural relationships requires active engagement, honesty, and outgoing personality. Thus, it is significant for intercultural partners to appreciate their differences through open discussions of internal and external issues affecting their bond. Couples with a high degree of openness have the potential of upholding unique interactions as opposed to a couple from the same cultural background.

Communication

A good marriage prospers on the open exchange of desires, emotion, and beliefs. Researchers have found communication as one of the most substantial aspects of satisfying marriage. Marriages based on intercultural or monocultural basis often experience challenges that have the potential of changing the way couples communicate with one another. In cultural marriages, communication touches on the context of the situation, non-verbal physical expressions such as facial expressions and behavior, emotion, and touch. Harvey and Griffith (2002) reported the complexity of communications that requires an understanding of the nature of domains intercultural relationships and the communication barrier with partners having unique national cultures. Intercultural communication incorporates various factors, such as motivation and cultural compatibility. Communication barrier affects external or social support such as stereotype attitude toward the intercultural couple, especially when the cultural distance between the people in a relationship is significant (Ledermann, Bodenmann, Rudaz & Bradbury, 2010). The inability to develop communication between couples have a substantial impact on their relationship. From a social perspective, intercultural marriage, unlike monocultural, requires couples to establish trust, commitment, and narrow the cultural distance for active development of the relationship.

What’s more, communication in intercultural relationships focuses on information exchange, knowledge, or data transferred among functional or operating units, limiting the effectiveness of cross-cultural marriages. To that end, poor communication results in social distances that reduces the effeteness of marriage. Similar to monocultural marriages, intercultural relationships demand a communication strategy that offers a link that allows the achievement of communication objectives. Communication strategies in intercultural marriages affect fundamental normative beliefs, values, and expectations. The social impact of communication among couples includes personal interactions. In monoculture marriages, cultural appropriateness has a direct influence on the intimate relationship of couples. Intercultural marriages often represent a societal or macro culture that influences marriages due to different values and norms.

The subject of conflict always arises when studying communication within intercultural marriages. Interpersonal relationships experience disputes due to the intimacy of married couples. Scholars ascertain that intercultural marriages witness amplified levels of conflict compared to monocultural marriages. McShall & Johnson (2015) conducted research to validate the claim that intercultural marriages fail more often compared to intercultural romantic relationships. Nevertheless, research has reported that communication in intercultural marriages is difficult to establish and withstand. The social and spousal influence of communication in both cross-cultural and monocultural marriages include a dysfunctional marriage that has a higher probability of leading to a divorce. Thus, communication in either intercultural or monocultural marriage causes internal and external support or lack thereof due to differences in situational and personality factors. In both types of cultural marriage, communication allows sharing and establishing meaning between couples. Communication is crucial for both internal and external support of marriages from both cultural divides.