‘Mixed’ Religion Relationships and Well-being in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Religion plays a pivotal role in intergroup and interpersonal relationships in Northern Ireland, and individuals traditionally marry within their own religious group. However, 'mixed' marriages between Catholics and Protestants do occur and present an interesting, yet under researched, dynamic within this divided society. Both religion and committed relationships have been associated with physical and psychological health, but little is known about how divergence in religious beliefs within relationships impacts on health. A secondary data analysis of the Northern Ireland cohort of the Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study was conducted to investigate the impact of mixed religion relationships on physical and psychological well-being in Northern Ireland. Less than 10% of relationships were mixed religion relationships, and being in a mixed relationship was associated with poorer mental health but not with physical health. Mixed religion relationships in Northern Ireland are relatively uncommon in Northern Ireland, but are an important form of intergroup contact, as such it is important to fully understand the implications for the individuals involved and develop mechanisms to support those individuals psychological well-being.

Religious Identification, Switching, and Apostasy Among Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland: Individual and Cohort Dynamics Between Two Censuses 2001–2011

“…This concurs with research on the link between marriage and religious choice (Lim, MacGregor, and Putnam ; Musick and Wilson ; O'Leary ; Stolzenberg, Blair‐Loy, and Waite ). Our sample does not contain information on what religion the respondent's spouse belongs to, but research based on the census and on the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study (McAloney ) shows that only between 5 and 7 percent of marriages in Northern Ireland crossed the Protestant‐Catholic divide in 2011.…”

Improving Refugee Well-Being With Better Language Skills and More Intergroup Contact

“…For example, minority group students assigned to a majority group roommate reported significantly higher sense of university belonging (Shook & Clay, 2012) and had better academic performance compared to those assigned to a minority group roommate (Burns, Corno, & LaFerrara, 2015; Shook & Clay, 2012). In contrast, however, mixed-religion relationships Northern Ireland, that is, Catholic and Protestant, have been linked to poorer psychological (but not physical) well-being (McAloney, 2014). These mixed results could indicate that the consequences of intergroup contact differ depending on which groups are involved.…”

Influence of Heterogamy by Religion on Risk of Marital Dissolution: A Cohort Study of 20,000 Couples

“…Building on our finding that Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland were segregated by marriage as well as area of residence at the 2001 Census, an interesting line of future work would be to investigate whether this boundary exerts a similar influence over less formal relationships, specifically between cohabiting couples. There is evidence that cohabitation is relatively common among couples heterogamous by religion in Northern Ireland compared with homogamous couples (Lloyd and Robinson 2011 ; McAloney 2013 ). Given that cohabiting couples are more likely to separate than married couple (Lyngstad and Jalovaara 2010 ; Jalovaara 2013 ), an extension to this study might involve construction of a composite measure of dissolution risk for heterogamous couples based on outcomes of both marriages and cohabiting relationships.…”

“…Estimates for the prevalence of Protestant–Catholic marriages during the Troubles are scarce because religion of partners is not recorded on marriage registration forms (Lloyd and Robinson 2011 ) but social attitude surveys from the last decade of the Troubles indicated a slight increase in heterogamous relationships (not necessarily marriages) from 6 % in 1989 to 9 % in 1998 (Wigfall-Williams and Robinson 2001 ). Protestant–Catholic marriage has been associated with worse mental but not physical health of partners in comparison with those in homogamous marriages, highlighting the detrimental effects of the pressures facing those in heterogamous marriages in contemporary Northern Ireland (McAloney 2013 ).…”