Family arguments appear to be among the more disruptive of family stressors. Family tensions appeared to elicit similar emotional responses from both races on the day they occurred, whereas the enduring or lagged effects on negative affect were greater for African Americans than for European Americans. Disagreements with close family may be particularly disruptive to daily affect for both races because individuals expect their family relationships to be maintained in the face of conflict, and so individuals tend to behave more negatively toward family members compared to other social network members (Sillars et al., 2004). Family ties, unlike friendships, are not necessarily voluntary, are more difficult to severe, and the time spent with family tends to be more negative than the time spent with friends (Sillars et al., 2004). Still, the negative effects may be enduring among African Americans because of the strong importance of family ties in African American families (Goodwin, 2003), providing additional support for the significance of negative relational experiences for African Americans’ well-being (Broman, 1993).
