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Poster #186 - Ambivalent Sexism Predicts Young Adults’ Perceived Romantic Relationship Qualities

Thu, March 21, 9:30 to 10:45am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Emerging adulthood is period when many women and men are developing their gender-related beliefs in the context of romantic relationships (Shulman & Connolly, 2013). According to the ambivalent sexism model (Glick & Fiske, 1996), sexist attitudes about heterosexual relationships reinforce restrictive and complementary roles for men and women. These include hostile sexism (e.g., women as inferior to men) and benevolent sexism (e.g., men protect women; women and men have complementary traits). Thus, endorsing benevolent and hostile sexism might have damaging impacts on heterosexual relationship development. With a sample of heterosexual romantic couples in emerging adulthood, we examined the relation of sexist attitudes in relation to both individuals’ and their partners’ views of their relationship.
METHOD. We separately surveyed 94 heterosexual romantic partner dyads (N=188; 50% female; 39.4% European American, 25.0% Latinx, 18.1% Asian/Asian American, 6.4% other; mean age=21 years old). Participants completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory to measure their endorsements of benevolent sexism and hostile sexism (Glick & Fiske, 1996). In addition, each partner rated their romantic relationship on global satisfaction, ambivalence (i.e., mixed feelings), and conflict (Davis & Todd, 1982). We analyzed the relations of ambivalent sexism to the actor’s perception of the relationship as well as to the partner’s perceptions.
HOSTILE SEXISM (HS). Men’s endorsement of HS significantly predicted their global satisfaction, r(94)=-.26, p=.006; ambivalence, r(94)=.36, p < .001; and conflict, r(94)=.23, p=.014. Men’s HS was significantly related to the female partners’ ambivalence, r(94)=.25, p=.009, and conflict, r(94)=.25, p=.008. It was unrelated to partners’ global satisfaction.
Women’s endorsement of HS significantly predicted their ratings of relationship ambivalence, r(94)=.30, p=.002; and conflict, r(94)=.17, p=.055. But women’s HS was not significantly related to their satisfaction rating. Also, women’s HS significantly predicted their male partners’ ambivalence, r(94)=.20, p=.027; but was not significantly related to their partners’ satisfaction or conflict ratings.
BENEVOLENT SEXISM (BS). Women’s BS was positively related to relationship ambivalence, r(94)=.29, p=.002; and conflict, r(94)=.19, p=.037 (but not significantly associated with global satisfaction). Their BS was significantly related to their male partners’ ambivalence, r(94)=.32, p=.001; but not to satisfaction or conflict.
Men’s BS significantly predicted their global satisfaction, r(94)=.29, p=.002; ambivalence, r(94)=-.24, p=.009; and conflict, r(94)=-.18, p=.038. Their BS was also significantly related to their female partners’ global satisfaction, r(94)=.22, p=.018; but was not significantly associated with ambivalence or conflict.
DISCUSSION. The results highlight the potentially negative impact of ambivalent sexism on romantic relationships among young heterosexual couples. HS was generally related to negative evaluations of relationships for women as well as men. BS also was associated with more negative relationship experiences in women; but it was related to more positive relationship experiences in men. This difference is consistent with the inequities that traditional gender roles perpetuate, whereby women take care of men in exchange for men’s protection. However, our results indicate that adopting these attitudes may not lead to satisfaction in romantic relationships. More broadly, the results suggest that endorsing ambivalent sexism may undermine heterosexual relationship happiness for emerging adult women and men in contemporary society.

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