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INTRODUCTION
In today's world, national boundaries are increasingly blurred because of the ubiquitous influence the media, the Internet, and technology exert in our everyday lives (e.g., Arnett, 2002; Wilding, 2006). These factors contribute to increased cultural exchange, which allows diverse individuals to meet, interact, and marry more easily (Tseng, McDermott, and Maretzki, 1977; Romano, 2001). Therefore, it is no surprise that it is becoming increasingly relevant to speak of intercultural couples and the opportunities and challenges these relationships face. Intercultural marriages in the United States have been steadily increasing over the past three decades (Frame, 2004; Ibrahim and Shroeder, 1990; Kalmijn, 1993; Molina, Estrada, and Burnett, 2004; Negy and Snyder, 2000; Qian and Lichter, 2007; Waldman and Rubalcava, 2005). In 2000, for example, 7.4% of all married-couple households and 15% of all opposite-sex unmarried-couple households involved partners of different races or origins (see special tabulation from Summary File 1 of U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).
An intercultural couple is defined here as the union between two people of different nationalities, which may or may not include differences in race, ethnicity, religion, and language. Over the years, many terms have been used to describe culturally diverse couples. The terms intermarriage, cross-cultural marriage (or relationships), transcultural families, and cross-ethnic intermarriages have been used in slightly different, yet largely overlapping ways (Breger and Hill, 1998; Roer-Strier and Ben Ezra, 2006; Sullivan and Cottone, 2006). Historically, the term intercultural relationship has been applied to racially mixed couples (Crohn, 1998; Kalmijn, 1993;McFadden, 2001; McFadden and Moore, 2001 ; Pascoe, 1991; Sullivan and Cottone, 2006) because racial differences are considered cultural differences in some societies (Sullivan and Cottone, 2006). Many researchers, however, have argued that intercultural relationships require broader definitions, specifically because culture itself is broadly defined (Softas-Nall and Baldo, 2000; Sullivan and Cottone, 2006; Waldman and Rubalcava, 2005), and because racial difference does not equal cultural difference. Although partners in an intercultural relationship may have different racial backgrounds, what makes their relationship intercultural is that it is "characterized by greater differences between the partners in a wider variety of areas, with race, religion, ethnicity, and national origin being [some of] the primary factors" (Sullivan and Cottone, 2006, p. 222).
In this literature review, the authors argue that intimate partner choice is...