Contrary to our expectations, African Americans and European Americans did not differ significantly in their exposure to interpersonal tensions or network events involving family. Daily family stressors, such as an argument with a spouse, arise out of the routine circumstances of daily family life (Almeida, 2005). Although the nature of specific family ties vary by race/ethnicity (Broman, 2005; Bulanda & Brown, 2007; Smetana & Chuang, 2001), our findings suggest that these social circumstances do not contribute to differential family stressor exposure between African Americans and European Americans.
