:ERNS-PF.P.AMILy.i:NMA:cTP IN SOUTH •AFRKAN TERRAC , ARRIAG Y MOIRA TEB960 PATIENCE, MAMAS DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE' ;.-REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF. ARTS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AN-THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOG' FACULTY QF ARTS AT THE ' RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR: PROF. K.F.'MAUF JANUARY 1996 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the following people for their invaluable assistance: My promotor, Professor Ricky Mauer, for guidance, discipline, and his demanding, but supportive supervision. Prof. Dave Beyers, Dr. Marietjie Joubert, and Miss Corinne Oosthuizen, for being great teachers. Prof. Edward Wolff, Derek Kobe, Robin Hamilton and Thandi Magazine, who went out of their way to help me find subjects for my study. Betty Diale, Rebecca Mankwe, Lesego Phokanoka and Thabo Matla, for being committed and generous raters. The subjects who participated in this study for sharing their views of reality with me. My son, Lekgetha, late brother Molamo, my parents Deret and Lydia, my sister Makgabo, and my youngest brother Jeremia, for love, support and room to grow. ---oOo--- ABSTRACT This study was prompted by the thousands of frustrated interracial couples who were either compelled to hide their relationships or leave South Africa in order to get married or live where interracial relationships and marriages were permitted. This pattern occurred during the apartheid era, before the repeal of the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and Section 16 of the Immorality Act. After the repeal of these Acts, the number of interracial couples in South Africa increased as indicated by Central Statistical Service figures for 1990, when 3 212 interracial marriages were reported. In April 1994 South Africa gained its first Democratic Government leading to the investigator being encouraged to undertake this study. In the study, the investigator explored patterns of family interaction in South African interracial marriages. Eight married couples were interviewed for between 45 minutes to one hour each, and the interviews were taperecorded. Three raters were used by the investigator to score the taped interviews. Couples seemed to feel that more than any other factor, they had become involved because they loved each other. They seemed to have developed their own style of communication since both verbal and non-verbal acts were seldom misinterpreted by them. Given the past political situation in South Africa, these couples seemed to have developed a closer bond. On the other hand, these couples exhibited the fact that interracial marriages are in most respects like other marriages in terms of their dynamics Three male adolescent children of the interracial couples were also asked to comp) .-,e the Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire. Two adolescents identified with tl -,.. value systems of their parents, while one adolescent disagreed with his parents' value system. ---o0o--- OPSOMMING Die groot aantal gefrustreerde veelrassige pare wat genoodsaak was om hul verhoudings in die geheim voort te sit, of andersins hul vaderland te verlaat om elders buite die grense van Suid-Afrika hul verhouding voort te sit of in die huwelik te tree, het aanleiding gegee tot hierdie studie. Hierdie situasie het, voor die opheffing van die Verbod op Gemengde Huwelike en Artikel 16 van die Ontugwet, gedurende die apartheidsera voortgeduur. Volgens syfers wat in 1990 deur die Sentrale Statistiekdiensestel is, het die aantal veelrassige verhoudings en huwelike toegeneem en is 3212 veelrassige huwelike vir daardie jaar gerapporteer. Suid-Afrika het in April 1994 sy eerste Demokratiese Regering verkies en dit het gelei tot 'n groter toename in gemengde huwelike as ooit tevore. In hierdie studie verken die navorser die model van gesinsinteraksie in veelrassige huwelike in Suid-Afrika en voer persoonlike onderhoude met agt sulke pare. Die onderhoude het tussen 45 minute en een uur geduur en is op band vasgele. Drie beoordelaars is opgelei om die bandopnames van die onderhoude te evalueer. Hierdie onderhoude het aangetoon dat, ongeag van enige ander faktore wat hulle verhoudings kon beinvloed, hulle aangetrokkenheid tot mekaar wel liefde was. Dit blyk verder dat hulle hul eie wyse van kommunikasie ontwikkel het aangesien verbale en nie-verbale kommunikasie selde tot misverstande gelei het. Hierdie pare ondervind egter ook dat hulle verhoudings, ten spyte van die politieke situasie van die verlede, nou baie hegter is. Dit blyk ook duidelik dat veelrassige egpare se huwelik in die meeste opsigte nie veel verskil van enige ander normale huwelik nie. Drie adolessente jongmense is ook versoek om die Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire te voltooi, wat aangedui het dat twee van die drie adolessente hulle vereenselwig met hul ouers se waardesisteme, terwyl die derde nie daarmee saamgestem het nie. ---o0o--- (iv) TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (i) SUMMARY (ENGLISH) (ii) SUMMARY (AFRIKAANS) TABEL OF CONTENTS (iv) LIST OF TABLES (x) LIST OF FIGURES (xi) CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH TOPIC 1 1.2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON INTERRACIAL COUPLES 3 RESEARCH DESIGN 4 OUTLINE OF STUDY 5 CHAPTER 2: PERCEIVED AND COMPATIBILITY OF INTERETHNIC MARRIAGE 2.1 INTRODUCTION 6 2.2 BLACK/WHITE INTERMARRIAGE IN THE PAST: A TROUBLED HISTORY 7 2.3 THE HISTORY OF THE IMMORALITY ACT AND PROHIBITION OF MIXED MARRIAGES ACT IN SOUTH AFRICA 9 2.4 INCIDENCE OF MIXED MARRIAGES IN 1989 AND 1990 IN SOUTH AFRICA 11 (v) PAGE 2.5 TRENDS IN BLACK/WHITE INTERMARRIAGE 12 2.6 FRIENDS WHO ARE MIXED COUPLES 13 2.7 THEORIES AND MODELS OF INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES 15 2.7.1 Racial and cultural identity development models 16 2.7.2 The black and white interaction model of Helms 17 2.7.3 An extension of Helms's interaction theory to multi- cultural family counselling 19 2.7.4 Observations and limitations 21 2.8 NATIVITY, INTERMARRIAGE AND MOTHER- TONGUE SHIFTS 22 2.9 COMMUNICATION TRAINING FOR INTERCUL- TURAL COUPLES 24 CHAPTER 3: TYPES OF INTERCULTURAL MARRIAGES 3.1 INTRODUCTION 26 3.2 ROMANO'S TYPOLOGY 26 3.2.1 Submission 26 3.2.2 Compromise 26 3.2.3 Obliteration 27 3.2.4 Consensus 28 3.3 REALITY OF INTERMARRIAGE 28 3.4 SEX 29 3.5 SOCIAL CLASS AND POVERTY 30 3.6 LANGUAGE AND PHYSICAL DIVERSITY 31 3.7 FOOD AND DINING ETIQUETTE 32 (vi) PAGE 3.8 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 32 3.8.1 Verbal communication 34 3.8.2 Non-verbal communication 34 3.8.3 Communication styles 35 3.9 DEALING WITH STRESS 36 3.10 ILLNESS AND SUFFERING 37 3.11 RAISING CHILDREN 39 3.12 ETHNOCENTRISM 44 3.13 PATTERNS OF FAMILY INTERACTION AND ADOLESCENT SEX-ROLE CONCEPTS 45 3.13.1 Adolescent development of sex-role concepts 46 3.13.2 Individuation in family relationships 46 3.14 CROSS-CULTURAL FAMILY DIFFERENCES: INTERRACIAL ASSESSMENT OF WHITE, BLACK AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES 48 3.14.1 Ethnic comparison 49 3.14.2 Social class comparison 50 3.15 COMPONENTS OF FAMILY LIFE SATISFACTION IN A SAMPLE OF 58 KOREAN/AMERICAN COUPLES 51 3.16 BLACK AND WHITE WOMEN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE 52 3.17 CORRESPONDENCE OF FAMILY THERAPISTS' PERCEPTIONS WITH FAMILY RATIONAL COMMU- NICATION CONTROL CODING SYSTEM (FRCCCS) CODING RULES FOR TRIADIC INTERACTIONS 53 PAGE 3.18 CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE RESEARCH DISCUSSED 54 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH DESIGN 4.1 INTRODUCTION 56 4.2 STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM 56 4.3 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION 57 4.4. RESEARCH DESIGN 57 4.4.1 Sampling 57 4.4.2 Demographics 57 4.5. MEASURING INSTRUMENTS 57 4.5.1 Family Functioning in Adolescent Questionnaire (FFAQ) 58 4.5.2 The SYMLOG. 59 4.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 60 4.7 EXPECTED RESULTS 60 4.8 DATA ANALYSIS 61 4.9 THE SYMLOG LANGUAGE 62 4.10 THE FORMAT OF THE SYMLOG MESSAGE ACCORDING TO BALES, COHEN AND WILLIAMSON (1979) 63 4.11 CONCLUSION 66 4.11.1 The nature of interpretations 66 PAGE 4.12 TRAINING RATERS 67 4.12.1 Inter-rater reliability 68 4.13 CONCLUSION 68 CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH FINDINGS 5.1 INTRODUCTION 69 5.2 PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED 69 5.2.1 Demographics 69 5.3 COMMON THEMES 70 5.3.1 Language 70 5.3.2 Experiences of these couples 70 5.3.3 Socio-political factors 71 5.3.4 Crime and safety 71 5.3.5 Economic concerns 72 5.3.6 The Government 73 5.3.7 Uncommon themes 73 5.3.8 Conclusion 74 5.4 SYMLOG ANALYSIS 74 5.5 SUMMARY OF SYMLOG FINDINGS 89 5.6 THE FFAQ SCORES 90 5.6.1 Ipsative interpretation 90 5.6.2 Normative interpretation 90 PAGE 5.6.3 Test results 91 5.6.4 Summary of SYMLOG findings compared to FFAQ findings 95 5.7 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 97 CHAPTR 6: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 INTRODUCTION 99 6.2 INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE IN THE PAST AND PRESENT IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT 99 6.3 COMMUNICATION 100 6.4 TYPES OF INTERCULTURAL MARRIAGES 100 6.5 RECOMMENDATIONS 101 6.6. CONCLUSION 101 REFERENCES 102 APPENDIX 114 (x) LIST OF TABLES PAGE Testee 1: Samuel (Raw and standard scores obtained from Testee 1) 91 Testee 2: Peter (Raw and standard scores obtained from Testee 2) 92 Testee 3: Daniel (Raw and standard scores obtained from Testee 3) 93 ---o0o--- (xi) LIST OF FIGURES PAGE Figure 1: The SYMLOG interaction Scoring Form 63 Figure 5.1: The SYMLOG three-dimensional space, showing classes of directions, or locations, defined by logical combinations of the six names reference directions (Adapted from Bales & Cohen, 1979, p.23) 75 Figure 5.2: SYMLOG Polarisation-unification overlay (Adapted from Bales & Cohen, 1979, p.446) 77 Figure 5.3: Field diagram: Solly and Sarah (Expansion multiplier 1,46) 80 Figure 5.4: Field diagram: Ali and Emmy (Expansion multiplier 2,43) 80 Figure 5.5: Field diagram: John and Elza (Expansion multiplier 1,87) 82 Figure 5.6: Field diagram: Ismail and Sonia (Expansion multiplier 2,06) 82 Figure 5.7: Field diagram: Junior and Daisy (Expansion multiplier 2,52) 85 Figure 5.8: Field diagram: Ben and Ria (Expansion multiplier 1,43) 85 Figure 5.9: Field diagram: Abdul and Mary (Expansion multiplier 1,56) 88 5.