Multiracial Relationships

Multiracial individuals, by virtue of coming from interracial families and having parents from different racial backgrounds, are likely to have different racerelated experiences compared to monoracial individuals who come from families and parents belonging to a singular racial group. The differences in these racerelated experiences lead us to expect increased interracial relationship comfort for multiracial people.

First, multiracial individuals are often exposed to a model, via their parents, showing it is acceptable to marry someone of a different race. Additionally, while monoracial people often cite potentially negative reactions from family members as a reason to avoid intimate interracial relationships (Root, 2001), multiracial people are less likely to face this concern from their immediate family

members.

Second, on the whole, multiracial individuals may have more positive experiences with interracial interactions. Multiracial youth often grow up in interracial families in which they observe people of different backgrounds living together in harmony, contradicting society’s messages about the inevitability of racial conflicts

(Phinney & Alipuria, 1996). Furthermore, interracial couples often report