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When Contact Correlates with Prejudice: Adolescents’ Romantic Relationship Experience Predicts Greater Benevolent Sexism in Boys and Hostile Sexism in Girls

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Abstract

The present research examines how romantic relationship experience and age predict ambivalent sexism in adolescents. We measured sexist beliefs and romantic relationship experience in a large sample of Spanish adolescents (N = 1447), ranging from 12 to 19 years of age. Consistent with prior research, age predicted less sexist beliefs. Controlling for the effects of age, relationship experience predicted increased hostile sexism in girls and increased benevolent sexism in boys. Additionally, younger boys (12–14 years) with greater relationship experience tended to endorse hostile sexism more strongly. The general decline in sexism over the course of adolescence masks a contrasting effect of romantic experience, which suggests that heterosexual adolescents’ desire to attract romantic partners may foster, rather than reduce, sexism.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Andrew Livingstone for his statistical advice, as well as the editor, Irene Frieze, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This research was funded by the Grant AP2003-5116 awarded to the first author, and by the Grant SEJ2007-65816/PSIC awarded to the second author, both of them from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.

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Appendix

Appendix

Translation of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory for Adolescents (ISA) into English (originally validated in Spanish)

1. Boys are physically stronger than girls. (Los chicos son físicamente superiores a las chicas.)

2. Boys should exert control over who their girlfriends interact with. (Los chicos deben controlar con quién se relacionan sus novias.)

3. Girls should help their mothers at home more than boys. (Las chicas deben ayudar más a sus madres en casa que los chicos.)

4. Girls are better at domestic tasks, whereas boys are more skilled at fixing things. (A las chicas les va mejor en las tareas de casa, mientras que los chicos son más habilidosos para reparar cosas.)

5. Sometimes girls use the fact of being “girls” to say they should be treated in a special way. (A veces las chicas utilizan lo de ser “chicas” para que las traten de manera especial.)

6. When girls lose to boys in a fair competition, they typically complain about being discriminated against. (Cuando las chicas son vencidas por los chicos en una competición justa, generalmente, ellas se quejan de haber sido discriminadas.)

7. Girls are too easily offended. (Las chicas se ofenden muy fácilmente.)

8. Girls often interpret innocent remarks as being sexist. (Las chicas suelen interpretar comentarios inocentes como sexistas.)

9. Girls often exaggerate their problems. (Las chicas suelen exagerar sus problemas.)

10. Girls are actually seeking having more power than boys, under the guise of asking for “equality.” (Las chicas con la excusa de la igualdad pretenden tener más poder que los chicos.)

11. At night, boys should accompany girls home to make sure that nothing bad happens to them. (Por las noches los chicos deben acompañar a las chicas hasta su casa para que no les ocurra nada malo.)

12. Girls should be cherished and protected by boys. (Las chicas deben ser queridas y protegidas por los chicos.)

13. Boys should take care of girls. (Los chicos deben cuidar a las chicas.)

14. A good boyfriend should be willing to sacrifice things he likes to do in order to please his girlfriend. (Un buen novio debe estar dispuesto a sacrificar cosas que le gustan para agradar a su chica.)

15. In a disaster, girls ought not necessarily to be rescued before boys. (En caso de una catástrofe las chicas deben ser salvadas antes que los chicos.)

16. Girls, compared to boys, tend to be more sensitive to others’ feelings. (Las chicas tienen una mayor sensibilidad hacia los sentimientos de los demás que los chicos.)

17. Girls are generally more intelligent than boys. (Las chicas en general son más inteligentes que los chicos.)

18. It is important for boys to always have a girlfriend. (Para los chicos es importante encontrar a una chica con quien salir.)

19. Romantic relationships are essential for achieving true happiness in life. (Las relaciones de pareja son esenciales para alcanzar la verdadera felicidad en la vida.)

20. A boy will feel incomplete if he is not dating a girl. (Un chico puede sentirse incompleto si no sale con una chica.)

Note: Items 1–10 measure Hostile Sexism. Items 11–20 measure Benevolent Sexism (11–15: protective paternalism; 16–17: complementary gender differentiation; 18–20: heterosexual intimacy).

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de Lemus, S., Moya, M. & Glick, P. When Contact Correlates with Prejudice: Adolescents’ Romantic Relationship Experience Predicts Greater Benevolent Sexism in Boys and Hostile Sexism in Girls. Sex Roles 63, 214–225 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9786-2

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