This study investigated the social support process among Black and White female friendship networks through a social identity perspective. The goal of this study was to identify the conditions under which female friends might serve as conflict multipliers rather than conflict buffers when discussing a conflict between a female friend and her male romantic partner. Traditional social support literature suggests that social support networks can improve the quality of romantic relationships, but this study proposed that female friendship networks can sometimes hurt romantic relationships, particularly the perceived closeness with the male romantic partner. In particular, this study suggests that Black female social support networks may have stronger effects on perceptions of one's male romantic partner compared to White women due to their unique sociocultural history and socialization to be a "Strong Black Woman." The composition of Black friends upholding this Strong Black Woman ideal may form a "Strong Black Woman Collective," such that Black friends communicatively reinforce the virtues of strength in one another. It was hypothesized that the strength would affect the social support process, and consequently be associated with lower levels of perceived relational closeness for Black women and their male romantic partners.

Two hundred and twenty nine Black and White women completed online survey questionnaires and the data were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. The quantitative results revealed that, generally, the conversations about relational conflict among the group of female friends were more comparable than disparate for Black and White women. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicated that the type of support provided as well as identification to the group, in-group solidarity and derogation of the male partner were common for both groups of women. These effects were significantly associated with a decrease in perceived relational closeness with the male romantic partner. There was also a significant three-way interaction for male prototypicality, the ethnicity of the woman, and derogation of the male partner for relational closeness. For Black women who had lower to moderate levels of male prototypicality during their conversation about the conflict among their female friends, derogation of the male romantic partner was significantly associated with women feeling less close with their romantic partner. When male prototypicality was high, there was no significant association between derogation and perceived relational closeness. For White women who perceived the male partner to have any level of male prototypicality (high, moderate, or low), increased derogation was significantly associated with them feeling less close to their male romantic partner.

The qualitative results also revealed a distinct difference in the way Black women and White women communicate their support. A thematic analysis of the open-end remarks revealed that White friends were much more likely than Black friends to express their dual concern for the female friend and the male romantic partner, providing a fair and balanced perspective of both sides. Unlike White women, Black women were more forthright in their opinions of the conflict, using strong derogatory language, and typically sided with the male partner or with the female friend but not both. Specifically, Black women used more direct messages to signal agreement with the female partner and proceeded to derogate the male partners' behavior. Or, on the contrary, they would signal agreement with the male partner and directly communicate to the female friend the error of her ways. This current study is the first to use a social identity perspective as the underlying theoretical framework for the social support process among friendship networks. It extends current research by testing for the harmful, rather than helpful, nature of social support networks across cultural groups.