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Sexuality & Culture (2014) 18:759772 DOI 10.1007/s12119-013-9217-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
Siham Yahya Simon Boag
Published online: 7 January 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract The present study examined the perceived inuence of parental and social pressure on individuals perceptions regarding cross-cultural and interfaith dating and marriage. The questions of interest were: (1) What is the inuence of parental attitudes towards interfaith and cross-cultural relationships? (2) How do the participants feel it impacts upon them? And lastly, (3) How do the participants predict they will respond to their childrens choice of such relationships? Fifty-ve university students with diverse backgrounds participated in this study. The ndings indicate that the majority of the participants were inuenced by the social pressure put upon them. Moreover, the participants perceived the previous generation as racist. However, interestingly there are signs of a generational attitude shift. Finally, the ndings show that over 80 % of the participants did not want to interfere in their childrens partner selection. The remaining 20 % were against interfaith and cross-cultural dating and marriages.
Keywords Cross-cultural Interfaith Dating Marriage Religion
Romance Love
Introduction
In an increasingly multicultural world, the chances and possibilities of falling in love with someone from a different faith or cultural background is greater than ever. Interfaith relationships involve intimate interpersonal contact between people (dating, cohabitation, and marriage) of different religious beliefs (e.g., Judaism, Christianity and Islam). On the other hand, cross-cultural relationships are relationships that occur between people from different cultural backgrounds. While
S. Yahya (&) S. Boag
Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
My Family Would Crucify Me!: The Perceived Inuence of Social Pressure on Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Dating and Marriage
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760 S. Yahya, S. Boag
culture is a complex term (see Cohen 2009), in the present context culture is dened in terms of group tradition (rather than sharing the same nationality or living in the same country). Although culture and faith are intertwined, they are nonetheless two distinct parts of an individualtwo people may share the same faith but not necessarily the same cultural background (e.g., a Jewish Israeli and a Jewish American). Similarly, two people of the same culture may not share the same faith (e.g., a Muslim Iraqi and a Christian Iraqi). Cross-cultural and...