Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy (DMFT)

Department

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Family Therapy

Advisor

Anne Rambo

Committee Member

Charlene Desir

Committee Member

Jamie West

Abstract

Black couples' use of social media for expressing their emotions needs to be explored to help them develop their narratives without external pressure. Narrative therapy is used to understand the difficulties ofholding on to unique personal narratives and preferred futures in the context of a hostile dominant discourse. The Black community has a long history of oppression, which makes their stories significant. Thus, social media posts by successful Black couples can be helpful in developing a new theory explaining personal narratives of Black couples in an online environment. These narratives provide information regarding themost common problems faced by Black people in developing romantic relationships and the culture-specific factors influencing Black couples' relationships. This qualitative grounded theory focuses on understanding Black couples' use of social media in developing their couple narratives.

COinS