Graduation Term

Summer 2025

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology: Sociology

Committee Chair

Marion Willetts

Committee Member

Chris Wellin

Committee Member

Susan Sprecher

Abstract

This study on interfaith marriages is an example of the micro-macro linkage that we seek to make in sociology. Marriage is a “primary,” intimate relationship, but one that increasingly involves “intermarriage” across lines of race/ethnicity, religion, and cultural backgrounds. Interfaith marriages, which refer to unions between individuals from different religious backgrounds, are becoming more common in today’s contemporary society. Therefore, it is relevant to understand the experiences of couples in interfaith marriages. It highlights how individual decisions in intimate relationships are influenced by larger social structures, such as religious norms and cultural expectations. This study explores how upbringing and lived experiences shape the ways interfaith couples make decisions to intermarry, before the couple is committed, and successful accommodations of differences once married. This study addresses motivations to participate in an interfaith marriage despite societal resistance. There is a relative lack of attention to the interpretive, contextual understanding of “interfaith marriage,” still less that focuses on the married dyad as the unit of analysis. Therefore, I conducted online interviews with five interfaith couples by interviewing both spouses separately; they are living in the United States and belong to Christian, Hindu, or Muslim religious backgrounds.

This study revealed that personal autonomy and individual choice often prevail over upbringing and societal pressures, as people seek out interfaith marriages despite external resistance. In this small-scale study, we gain insight into the choices and accommodations of differences that the predominantly young, educated couples in my sample make when it comes to managing everyday negotiations within their interfaith union. By focusing on how couples negotiate religious and cultural differences, my study contributes to discussions about identity formation and cultural hybridity. This adds to sociological understandings of how people construct meaning within their relationships in multicultural societies. Another key finding of this research is that while religious and societal norms shape marriage choices, interfaith couples actively exercise agency by negotiating, compromising, and reshaping traditional norms of endogamy. Also, my future findings may inform clinical/counseling professionals who must deal with the array of issues surrounding couples that shape the quality and longevity of such marriages.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD.1763755358.976781

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