Teaching students how to understand and avoid abusive relationships

Attitudes Toward Interracial Dating: Effects of Age, Sex, and Race

Attitudes toward interracial dating were investigated by surveying 400 individuals from an integrated community. As predicted, men were more positive than women, the young were more positive than the old. and Caucasian Americans were somewhat more positive than African Americans in their attitudes.

The issue of interracial relationships has historically been a difficult one for America. After decades of laws prohibiting such relationships. American attitudes towards them continued to be extremely negative until the present day, when they can be said to be ambivalent at best. These attitudes are reflected in problems surrounding interracial friendships (Hallinan & Williams, 1989; Sherman. 1990), interfacial dating (Johnson & Ogasawara. 1988), and interracial marriage (Crestser & Leon. 1982: Jeter, 1982: Porterfield, 1982). Nevertheless, according to available data such relationships appear to be increasing in number (Porterfield, 1982), perhaps because greater integration as required by law has allowed people from different groups to meet. or perhaps as a sign of decreasing racial prejudice.

This study focused on attitudes toward dating between African Americans and Caucasian Americans. Although some research has studied interracial marriage, there has been little study of interracial dating, the precursor to marriage. Johnson and Ogasawara (1988) reported that among Hawaiians. attitudes toward interracial dating were generally positive, but that more positive attitudes and more frequent interracial dating were found among men than women and among lower income groups than higher. The current study investigated age, sex, and race differences in attitudes toward interracial dating. predicting comparatively more positive attitudes among the young, because of their more liberal attitudes, among men, as found previously, and among Caucasians.

In addition, possible personality differences between those who have positive attitudes towards interracial dating and those who have negative attitudes were investigated. One study reported that women who married across race rated themselves as higher in dominance, exhibitionism, autonomy, and aggression, and lower in abasement and deference than those who did not, although there was little difference between men who married across or within race (Ahern, Cole, Johnson, & Wong, 1981). Furthermore, these researchers found that the less the proportion of outmarriage of given ethnic groups, the greater the difference between those who married across race versus within race. Thus, as interracial relationships increase in number, it is possible that such personality differences will decrease. Nevertheless, because interracial relationships are still not completely accepted. it was predicted that those with more positive attitudes toward interracial dating would consider themselves as more independent and assertive than those with negative attitudes.

METHOD
Participants

A total of 400 individuals from the community surrounding California State University, Dominguez Hills, an urban university in south central Los Angeles, were surveyed. This community is ideal for the purposes of this research. because it is diverse as to the age and ethnicity, but not the socioeconomic status, of the people. Because this lower-middle- to middle-class community is relatively well integrated. people have many opportunities to interact with individuals from other groups.

In the United States, ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) are often confounded, so it is important in any study of ethnic differences to eliminate SES as an explanation. The SES of participants was determined by summing points awarded for annual family income, amount of education, and whether they owned or rented their home, as they reported on a demographic information sheet. An analysis of variance revealed no differences in SES between African Americans and Caucasian Americans or between women and men. The older participants, however. were of significantly higher SES than the younger (F = 25.84, df = 1,259. p = .001).

All of the African-American and Caucasian-American volunteers who completed questionnaires were included in the data analysis. There were a total of 270 such participants with a mean age of 34.5 years. including 92 African Americans and 178 Caucasian Americans, 167 women and 103 men, and 185 individuals under age 40 years (M = 28.8) and 85 people age 40 years and over (M = 47.6).

Procedure

After receiving an explanation of the research and signing an informed consent form, volunteers individually and in private completed a demographic information sheet, a Self-Rating Scale, and a questionnaire on interpersonal power.

Measures

The measure of a positive attitude towards interracial dating was the answer Yes to this question on the demographic information sheet: “Would you be willing to have a romantic relationship with someone who is not from your own racial or ethnic group?” A negative attitude was defined as the answer No. A third group, the undecided, answered Maybe or left this question blank.

As a measure of independence and assertiveness, a 10-item Self-Rating Scale, based on the Osgood Semantic Differential (Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum, 1957), was used. It consisted of word pairs such as dependent-independent, powerless-powerful, unpersuasive-persuasive, and volunteers rated themselves for each pair on 7-point scales.

In addition, two subscales from Bennett’s (1988) power questionnaire were used. The first, called Need for Influence, contains 9 statements such as “It pleases me when people follow through with my suggestions,” and it seems to measure a person’s motivation or desire to influence others; 7 items from this subscale were used. The second subscale, called Ability, contains 12 statements such as “I have a natural talent for influencing people,” and it appears to tap the individual’s ability to influence others; 7 items from this subscale were used. Volunteers indicated on a 5-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree whether each statement was true for them. These indications were summed so that the scores on each subscale ranged from 7 to 35.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The percentage of each group who stated they would or would not be willing to date outside their own ethnic group is shown in Table 1. As can be seen, attitudes towards interracial dating were generally positive, in that overall 61% reported that they were willing to date outside their group. The most negative group was that of the younger Black women, with only 35% of them willing to date outside their group, and fully 44% clearly stating they were not willing to do so. The only other group with less than half willing to date outside their group was the older White women.

Chi-square tests revealed significant sex and age differences in attitude. As predicted, more men expressed a positive attitude toward interracial dating than did women (c2 = 9.54, dr = 2, p = .0085). Also as predicted, more younger volunteers expressed a positive attitude than did older (c2 = 5.32, df = 2, p = .0697). The predicted racial difference, that more Whites would be positive than Blacks, only approached significance (c2 = 4.48, df = 2. p = .106).

Separate 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 analyses of variance (Age Group x Gender x Ethnicity x Date Others [yes, no, undecided]) were performed on each of the 10 Self-Rating Scales and on the two questionnaire subscales. The mean scores are presented in Table 2. As can be seen in this table, 6 of the 12 measures showed a significant main effect for the willingness to date others. Furthermore, 4 revealed a significant main effect for Ethnicity, but there were no other significant main effects or interactions, It is interesting to note that there were no sex differences and no age differences on these measures, despite such differences in attitude as measured by the willingness to date others.

Those who stated that they were willing to date people from a different ethnic group rated themselves as more Independent (F = 3.60, df = 2, 259. p = .03). Powerful (F = 2.90. df= 2, 259. p = .058). Active (F = 4.19. dr = 2,259. p = .02), Able to Get Own Way (F = 7.87, df = 2. 259, p = .001), and Persuasive (F = 4.74, df = 2,259, p = .06) than those who stated they were not, and the undecided group fell in between. Furthermore. those willing to date outside their group scored higher on Need for Influence (F = 5.65, df = 2, 259. p = .004) than those who were unwilling; however, there were no differences between groups on Ability or on the self-ratings of Calm, Confident. Strong, Direct, or Influential. Thus, the prediction that individuals with a positive attitude towards interracial dating would consider themselves more independent and assertive than others was partially supported.

Perhaps because this study was done in an integrated community where interracial relationships may be relatively common, differences between those willing to date outside their group and those not willing were small. Ahern, Cole, Johnson, and Wong (1981) reported a similar finding, that the higher the proportion of outmarriage in given ethnic groups, the smaller the difference between those who married across race versus within race.

African Americans tended to rate themselves more positively than Caucasian Americans did. They rated themselves as more Confident (F = 10.4, dr = 1,259, p = .001), Powerful (F = 9.02, df = 1,259, p = .003). Able to Get Own Way (F = 7.07, df = 1,259, p = .008), and Influential (F = 5.94. df = 1, 259, p = .016) than did Whites. Although the two ethnic groups in this sample were similar in outward socioeconomic status, the meaning of this status may be different for the two groups. In a culture still beset with racism, it may be that for African Americans, living in an integrated community is a step up in status compared to other African Americans; for Caucasian Americans it may be considered a step down in status. Thus, the self-esteem of African Americans in an integrated community would be higher than that of Caucasians.

The negative attitude of African-American women toward interracial dating was not explained by any differences in personality as reflected in the interpersonal influence scales or the self-rating scales, and thus a situational explanation may be best. African-American women may perceive a relative lack of appropriate, single Black men, and they may resent the increased competition of other ethnic groups for the few available partners. They may perceive being willing to date outside their own ethnic group as letting the side down. It is also possible that they hold traditional values, feel distrustful of the intentions of Caucasian men who want to date them, or are sensitive to the criticism they may receive for interracial dating.

The self-ratings of those individuals who hold a positive attitude toward interracial dating suggest that they have a higher need to influence others and are more assertive and active in getting their own way than are people with a negative attitude, The two groups are similar, however, in their perceived ability to get their own way and in self-ratings that may reflect self-esteem and how they go about getting their way. A higher degree of conformity and passivity may account for an unwillingness to engage in interfacial dating. The fact that the majority of people in this sample were positive toward interfacial dating may suggest that race relations are better than is often portrayed in the media, at least in some communities.