Sexism in Adolescent Relationships: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The aim of this theoretical study is to learn which cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural variables involved in relationships are related to sexist attitudes by adolescents and how they relate to one another. After searching scientific articles published between 2005 and 2018 on PsycINFO, Psicodoc, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, 1,170 studies were obtained. After conducting the selection process, 20 were included in the review. The results of these studies show that adolescents who display attitudes that are more sexist have a more positive attitude towards intimate partner violence, greater sexual risk behaviours, greater attraction to sexist partners, greater support for the myth of idealized love and myth of love-abuse link, greater emotional dependence on the partner, and poorer quality in relationships, revealing gender-based differences in some of the mentioned variables. It is concluded that sexist attitudes are related to harmful forms of intimate interaction among teenagers. El sexismo en las relaciones de pareja adolescentes: una revisión sistemática R E S U M E N El objetivo de este estudio teórico es conocer qué variables cognitivas, emocionales, actitudinales y conductuales implicadas en las relaciones de pareja se relacionan con las actitudes sexistas por parte de los adolescentes, y cómo se relacionan éstas entre sí. Tras realizar una búsqueda de artículos científicos publicados entre 2005 y 2018 en las bases de datos PsycINFO, Psicodoc, PubMed, Scopus y Web of Science, se obtuvieron un total de 1,170 estudios de los cuales, tras llevar a cabo el proceso de selección, 20 fueron incluidos en la revisión. Los resultados de dichos estudios ponen de manifiesto que los adolescentes que presentan más actitudes sexistas tienen actitudes más positivas hacia la violencia en la pareja, mayores conductas de riesgo sexual, más atracción por parejas sexistas, mayor apoyo hacia el mito idealizado del amor y de vinculación amormaltrato, mayor dependencia emocional en la pareja y peor calidad en las relaciones de pareja, encontrándose diferencias en función del género en algunas de las variables. Se concluye que el mantenimiento de actitudes sexistas se relaciona con formas perjudiciales de interacción íntima entre adolescentes.

Synergy between Acceptance of Violence and Sexist Attitudes as a Dating Violence Risk Factor

“…Finally, this study's results also allow progress to be made into the two-way interaction between acceptance of violence and ambivalent sexism, and the repercussions on the victimization of certain types of abuse. In this sense, some previous studies have explored the relationship between the acceptance of violence and sexism [40], although mainly linked to the role of aggressor and in some cases to that of witness [54], associating hostile sexism with the acceptance of dating violence. The present study has found that the relationship between the acceptance of violence and benevolent sexism has a predictive value of victimization.…”

“…One of these explanatory indicators is adolescents' degree of acceptance of violence, although this indicator is generally linked to exposure to previous abusive situations within the family context or to a history of abuse suffered [14,15]. Sexist attitudes have also been associated with the phenomenon of dating violence, fundamentally in a descriptive way [40,41], or with other factors such as alcohol consumption [42]. The interest of the present study is that the role of protagonist is given to the victim, and that its analysis of the factors which contribute to sustaining the role of victim is multidimensional and interrelated.…”

Efficacy of a Brief Intervention Based on an Incremental Theory of Personality in the Prevention of Adolescent Dating Violence: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Violencia en el noviazgo Prevención Teorías implícitas de la personalidad Adolescentes at a higher risk of a number of psychological, social, academic, and physical problems (Chiodo et al, 2012;O'Leary, Slep, Avery-Leaf, & Cascardi, 2008), and an increased risk of suffering intimate partner violence in adult life (Ramiro-Sánchez, Ramiro, Bermúdez, & Buela-Casal, 2018;Smith, White, & Holland, 2003;Sunday et al, 2011).…”

Relationship (in)security is central to the sources and outcomes of sexist attitudes

“…However, an unresolved proposition of ambivalent sexism theory and our research is that formative experiences within heterosexual romantic relationships should be similarly formative for the development of sexist attitudes (Glick & Hilt, ; Hammond, Milojev, Huang, & Sibley, ). Evidence for this proposition is inconsistent: prior research has found that adolescent boys' experience with romantic relationships is associated with greater benevolent sexism (Montañés, Megías, de Lemus, & Moya, ), or greater hostile sexism (de Lemus, Moya, & Glick, ; Viejo, Ortega‐Ruiz, & Sánchez, ), or neither (Mastari, Spruyt, & Siongers, ; for a review, see Ramiro‐Sánchez, Ramiro, Bermúdez, & Buela‐Casal, ). Adolescent girls' history of having romantic relationships more consistently predicts benevolent sexism, but the effect sizes are small (Mastari et al, ; Montañés et al, ; Viejo et al, ), suggesting that other factors may play a larger role.…”