Presenter: Zachary Johnson, College of Family Home and Social Sciences, School of Family Life
Authors: Zach Johnson, Justin J. Hendricks, Mishonne Marks, Julianna Herbst, Loren D. Marks, David C. Dollahite
Faculty Advisors: Loren Marks, College of family home and social sciences, School of family life
Institution: Brigham Young University
Interfaith marriage is on the rise. While in the US in 1960 only 19% of married couples consisted of partners with different beliefs, the number has risen to 39% as of 2015 (Pew Research Center, 2015). However, research has found that interfaith couples, on average, have higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction (Riley, 2014). Because of this, we sought to further understand the experiences and adaptive processes of successful interfaith marriages. In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 happily married interfaith couples (N= 61), who had been married on average 19.7 years, and came from a variety of religious affiliations (26% Latter-day Saint, 19% Catholic, 18% Protestant, 16% Unaffiliated, 10% Jewish, 6% Muslim, 2% Orthodox Christian). We then employed rigorous team-based qualitative analysis strategies (Marks, 2015). The second and third authors performed open coding and arrived at 11 core themes through consensus. A codebook was then created for the systematic coding of those themes, which was used by a team of four to identify relevant passages. The first author performed further in-depth analysis on passages that met the criteria for one of these themes, “navigating religious differences”. This process yielded five core themes, which were cross-checked by the second author. They are as follows: (1) Supporting each other’s beliefs and participating in both religions (2) Focusing on similarities between beliefs (3) Honoring each other’s ability to choose (4) Making marriage the highest priority (5) Seeking to understand religious differences. These themes could be the beginnings of a framework to promote healthy marriages regardless of the faith beliefs of the partners. Additionally, if couples with such different beliefs are able to form lasting, meaningful marriages, these themes may offer lessons for all on how to empathize, heal divisions, and point to what is actually needed for a successful marriage.