Cultural Humility Promoting Relational Quality Among Intercultural Couples

Abstract

With the growing number of intercultural couples across the United States (U.S.), it is especially important to consider the unique experiences they may encounter as they navigate cultural differences. Despite the distinct experiences they face, there is limited research exploring relational dynamics among intercultural couples. The current study quantitatively examines the role of cultural humility and cultural sharing in predicting relational satisfaction and value-based conflict among intercultural couples. Grounded in relational-cultural theory, the present study used a path analysis to explore the extent to which the relationships among cultural humility, cultural sharing, relational satisfaction, and value-based conflict aligned with the hypothesized model. Participants included 102 students from a large suburban university in the Midwest region of the U.S. who self-reported being in an intercultural romantic relationship at the time of the study, or in the past 12 months. Results indicated that, after accounting for value similarity, cultural humility significantly predicted greater relational satisfaction and lower cultural conflict. Further, cultural sharing partially mediated the relationship between cultural humility and relational satisfaction and fully mediated the relationship between cultural humility and cultural conflict. These results highlight the importance of infusing content related to cultural humility and intercultural couples into counselor education training and clinical supervision. Further implications for research and counseling practice are discussed.