PhD Scientific Days 2021

MH_I_P: Mental Health Sciences I. Posters

Roma – non-Roma interethnic romantic relationships in Hungary

Text of the abstract

Introduction
Interethnic romantic relationships and marriages are considered as indicators and facilitators of successful social integration (Lieberson-Waters 1988; Meng-Gregory 2005; Hohmann-Marriott-Amato 2008; Song 2009; Song 2016), therefore it is important to examine Roma people with non-Roma partner.
Aim
In our study, we compare the socio-demographic characteristics of those Roma individuals who have at least once had romantic relationship with a non-Roma partner during their lifespan, to those who chose exclusively Roma partners.
Methods
We examined 549 Roma individuals who had already established a romantic relationship. The three main Roma subgroups’ proportion in the sample were similar. Connections were examined with Chi-squared test, Independent sample T-test, and Decision Tree analysis.
Result
Our most important results show that whether a Roma respondent ever had a non-Roma partner in his or her lifespan were significantly related to gender, official marital status, specific Roma subgroup (Romungró, Oláh, Beás), level of education, occupation and type of settlement. The analysis of Decision Tree revealed that those respondents, who live in non-traditional relationships as well as had more than primary school education, had the highest proportion of non-Roma partners.
Conclusion
As the education level of Roma population in Hungary improves in time, presumably the number of Roma – non-Roma relationships and marriages will increase as well.

University and Doctoral School

Semmelweis University, Doctoral School of Mental Health Sciences