College Students and “Interracial” Relationships: How Our Measures Matter

We use data from a random sample of students collected at two large public universities, one in the Midwestern region and one in the Southeastern region of the U.S., to document the prevalence of self-reported “interracial” romantic relationships (SR-IRRs) and the extent to which self-identifications differ from researcher-defined categorizations that label as “interracial/interethnic” all partnerships that cross racial or Latino/Hispanic ethnic boundaries (RD-IRRs). Our findings show that a substantial percentage of students in relationships that cross racial/ethnic lines do not identify them as “interracial.” As a result, measures of SR-IRR and RD-IRR produce very different prevalence figures for cross-group relationships (SR-IRR = 18% of respondents; RDIRR = 24%). The disjuncture between self-reports and researcher-defined categorizations is particularly pronounced for Hispanics and, to a lesser degree, non-Hispanic Whites. The consistency with which relationships that include non-Hispanic Black individuals are labeled, however, stands out as unique: every instance of racial/ethnic boundary crossing that involved an individual from this group was labeled as “interracial.” Multivariate analyses identify significant predictors of SR-IRRs and RDIRRs and how race/ethnicity, nativity status, and university location interact to shape relationship engagement and the likelihood of self-identifying relationships as “interracial.” Our discussion concludes with implications and suggestions for future research.