Interethnic Marriage in the United States: An Introduction

In the present paper, the editors address the topic of interethnic marriage within the United States. The editors begin by outlining five major objectives for the present edition (i.e., to discuss conceptual and methodological concerns regarding research on interethnic marriage; to examine interethnic marital relationship processes, especially through the lens of interdependence theory; to review attitudes towards interethnic marriage; to assess the clinical and policy implications for interethnic marriages; and to synthesize the contemporary scholarship on this still-pervasive topic), identifying those papers in which the respective sets of authors within the present edition address each of the objectives. Next, the editors review several previous studies dealing with intermarriage. Afterward, the editors provide an overview of interdependence theory (Kelley, 1979; Kelley & Thibaut, 1978; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959), which they view as a general framework for studying interethnic marriage. Finally, the editors invite readers to join in exploring state-of-the-art theorizing and research on interethnic marriage, in this first-of-its-kind JSI edition on such a timely and important social issue.