Understanding African American help-seeking for romantic relationships: Advocacy, barriers, and considerations

Aimee Hubbard, Steven Harris, Mary Dick, Das John McGee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

African American couples experience greater levels of relationship distress than other racial/ethnic groups, but they are less likely to seek formal couple counseling. Existing literature highlights the importance of community support in the form of church, family, and friends. While the literature suggests that African Americans encounter unique barriers, we do not know how racism and discrimination impact the couple help-seeking process. This study seeks to address this gap and better understand unique barriers in the African American couple help-seeking (AACHS) process via a grounded theory-informed qualitative study. Findings from interviews with 11 African American individuals in committed relationships highlighted mistrust as a significant barrier to AACHS, while community supports are frequently sought out. Our findings add to current understandings about AACHS and highlight important areas for future research. In the clinical implications section, the authors outline tangible steps that clinicians can take based on the findings from this study.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)348-367
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of marital and family therapy
Volume50
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Keywords

  • African American
  • communal resources
  • couple help-seeking
  • decolonizing
  • religious help-seeking

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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