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Perceived Sexism, Self-Silencing, and Psychological Distress in College Women

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Abstract

The current study aimed to increase knowledge related to the role of a restrictive relational strategy in the well-established link between women’s experiences of sexism and psychological distress. Utilizing self-report data, this study examined whether self-silencing mediated the relationship between perceived sexism and psychological distress in a sample of U.S. college women (n = 143) from a large, Midwestern university. It was hypothesized that recent sexist events, lifetime sexist events, and self-silencing would predict increased psychological distress and that self-silencing would mediate the relationship between perceived sexism and distress. Higher recalled sexist events both within the past year and over a lifetime predicted increased psychological distress and self-silencing, while self-silencing predicted increased distress. Results from hierarchical multivariate regression analyses and bootstrapping supported the mediating role of self-silencing between lifetime sexist events and distress and between recent (i.e., occurring in the past year) sexist events and distress. Findings support that the adoption of a restrictive relational strategy partially explains the negative psychological consequences of perceived sexism for college women.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Duke University, 402 Chapel Drive, 214 Page Building, Box 90955, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Rebecca J. Hurst

  2. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Denise Beesley

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  1. Rebecca J. Hurst
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  2. Denise Beesley
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Correspondence to Rebecca J. Hurst.

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Hurst, R.J., Beesley, D. Perceived Sexism, Self-Silencing, and Psychological Distress in College Women. Sex Roles 68, 311–320 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0253-0

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