Perceived Marginalization and the Prediction of Romantic Relationship Stability

The present research examined how perceived marginalization of one's romantic relationship is associated with level of future commitment to and stability of that involvement. Results from a 7-month longitudinal study of romantically involved individuals (N = 215) revealed that perceived social network marginalization at Time 1 predicted breakup status at Time 2, with commitment level at Time 1 fully mediating this association. Among those individuals whose relationships remained intact, social network marginalization predicted Time 2 commitment above and beyond satisfaction, alternatives, and investments. Additional analyses revealed that perceived general societal marginalization was a less robust predictor of relationship commitment and stability compared to social network marginalization. These findings highlight the important consequences of perceived social disapproval on relationship outcomes. Key Words: commitment, dissolution, interdependence, satisfaction, social networks, stability. A variety of studies have provided evidence indicating important connections between the structure and the opinions of people's social networks and various indices of relationship quality and functioning (e.g., Agnew, Loving, & Drigotas, 2001; Etcheverry & Agnew, 2004; Milardo, 1982; Sprecher & Felmlee, 1992). One aspect of the relational social context that has received relatively little research attention concerns the effects of prejudice directed against people's romantic relationships. What are the effects of perceived relationship marginalization on individuals' romantic involvements? In a recent cross-sectional investigation of individuals involved in primarily nontraditional romantic partnerships (i.e., same gender, interracial, and age gap; Lehmiller & Agnew, 2006), we examined the association between relationship marginalization, defined as the extent to which individuals perceive their romantic relationship as the subject of disapproval by their social networks and by society at large, and relationship commitment. Perceived relationship marginalization was found to significantly and negatively predict commitment, above and beyond the well-established effects of other commitment predictors. Perceived marginalization thus appears to provide unique additional information for understanding commitment processes in romantic relationships. In the present research, we sought to further our knowledge of the effects of perceived marginalization on consequential relational phenomena. Our goals were to (a) examine the longitudinal associations between marginalization and future levels of relationship commitment and stability, (b) determine whether the effects of marginalization on future relationship stability are mediated by commitment, and (c) examine whether these effects are moderated by source of perceived marginalization (i.e., social network vs. general society). We tested tiiese ideas in a 7-month longitudinal study with a sample composed primarily of individuals involved in marginalized relationships, an approach not previously adopted in the social approval literature. Prejudice and Romantic Relationships A wealth of public opinion polls and psychological research indicates that certain romantic involvements do not receive widespread social acceptance. For instance, research suggests that the American public largely disapproves of interracial (e.g., Gallup & Newport, 1991), samegender (e.g., Newport, 2004), and age gap relationships (i.e., relationships in which one partner is significantly older than the other; e.g., Banks & Arnold, 2001). Of these relationship types, samegender partners perhaps encounter the most visible and vocal opposition, as legally sanctioned same-gender partnerships (particularly when they are referred to as "marriages"; see Schmitt, Lehmtiler, & Walsh, in press) are opposed by die general public throughout much of the United States. All these nontraditional partnerships, though, are subject to some level of social resistance, even if the amount of opposition and underlying reasons for it vary by relationship type. …