Faith, Hope for the Culture, and Love: Exploring the Influence of Faith and Culture on Marital Resiliency Amongst African American Christians

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe African American Christian couples’ experiences with the influence of their faith and culture on their marital relationship. The theory guiding this study is the strengths-based perspective which was developed in the mid-1980s by Professor Charles Rapp and students from the University of Kansas as it provides context for the examination of strengths unique to a specific population and how these strengths can be utilized as a tool for improved success. Relative to this study, the researcher sought to explore the contributions of faith and culture in strengthening the marital experience for this specific population and to provide a contrasting perspective to much of the existing deficit-based literature. This study included ten married couples (sample size = 20) who identified as African American and Christian with a marital age spanning 10 - 47 years to reflect surpassing the “high risk” period as identified by existing research. Data was collected through a written prompt and interviews and resulted in the identification of five key themes addressing the research questions.