Resettlement and Relational Adjustment: Gender and Liberian Couple Relationships After Forced Migration

ABSTRACT Objective The goal of this study was to explore key informant and community members' perspectives on relational adjustment in one of the largest Liberian communities in the U.S., including ways that cultural and gender norm changes influenced couples post‐resettlement. Background Displacement, resettlement, and acculturation challenge traditional cultural norms and family processes. Gendered notions, or common family‐ and community‐level beliefs, values, and practices, are often upended and must be re‐negotiated after resettlement. Method Hermeneutic phenomenology procedures informed the current study design. Across a total of 40 participants, 20 engaged in individual key informant interviews and 20 individuals participated in one of three focus groups for women ( n = 6) and men ( n = 6) above 25 years of age, or young adults 18–25 years of age ( n = 8). Hermeneutic coding and data analysis protocols emphasized meaning‐making within participants' shared observations of their lived contexts. Results Qualitative perspectives on gender and Liberian couple relationships yielded common themes in two contexts: pre‐migration ( traditional beliefs and values, division of labor, and power and control) and post‐migration ( changes in beliefs and values, division of labor, power and control). An additional theme, relational outcomes, and two sub‐themes, financial acculturation and violence awareness , emerged as uniquely salient to post‐migration contexts. Conclusion Resettled Liberians managed complex adjustment challenges following war‐related displacement and navigated salient changes in gendered norms and other sociocultural values that had observable impacts on couple relationships. This study expands socioecological perspectives on refugee resettlement. We discuss research, clinical, and policy implications, with considerations for interventions with forcibly displaced couples, families, and communities.