SOCIAL STRUCTURAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF INTERETHNIC DATING

This study is designed to: (a) describe current interethnic dating beh avior and related attitudes among southern Californians; and (b) exami ne social structural and psychological correlates of interethnic datin g. Data were derived from a telephone survey conducted with a probabil ity sample of African American, Latino and white residents of southern California. Interethnic dating was reported by over half of all ethni c groups and both sexes and more frequently among men. Most reported t hat family members knew of their behavior and few families objected, a lthough white women were most likely to report family criticism. White s and Latinos who admitted to exclusions for intermarriage were most l ikely to exclude blacks, and black women and Latinas were most likely to exclude Asians. Logistic regression analyses indicated that interet hnic dating was associated with being male, younger, having more educa tion, being less lonely, the perception of having more mating opportun ities and being African American or Latino rather than white. Within e thnic group analyses demonstrated that the loneliness finding was spec ific to African American women and Latino males, suggesting that datin g outside of one's ethnic group was perhaps an adaptive behavior for t hese groups. It appears that one's particular location in the social s tructure as a function of age, education, sex and ethnic group may fac ilitate or discourage interethnic dating. Furthermore, mate availabili ty considerations contribute to such decisions.