Socioemotional Factor: A Missing Gap in Theorizing and Studying Black Heterosexual Coupling Processes and Relationships

Historically, scholars indicated that factors such as sociohistorical, sociocultural, and sociostructural barriers negatively impact the establishment and sustainability of Black male–female romantic unions. Although theoretical understanding of the impacts of the aforementioned factors are critical to contextualizing the experiences of Black men and women in their coupling processes, insights to the emotional influences of these factors on Black male–female romantic relationships are limited. In this literature review, we highlighted a significant gap in the literature, theoretically and empirically, on the socioemotional processes and influences of coupling and maintaining intimate heterosexual Black romantic relationships in a sociohistorical context of residual effects of slavery, a sociocultural context of internalized negative racial stereotypes, and a sociostructural context of gender imbalance in educational and employment attainment.