Having and Doing Gender: Young Adults’ Expression of Gender when Resolving Conflicts with Friends and Romantic Partners

Mixed-gender anxiety and gender-based relationship efficacy: A cross-lagged study of single-sex versus coeducational schooling bridging high school graduation

Feeling comfortable interacting with someone of another gender and having competence in cross-gender relationships are important for adolescents' and young adults' psychosocial development. However, extended experience in gender-segregated schooling environments may reduce opportunities to develop these competencies. To test this, comparisons between single-sex (SS) and coeducational (CE) school students' mixed-gender anxiety and gender-based relationship efficacy were conducted. Prior research on social outcomes of SS schooling were limited by the use of single-item surveys, cross-sectional designs, and inadequate control for confounding demographic differences between SS and CE students. We addressed these limitations by using (a) multi-item measures, (b) a longitudinal design that included two waves of data collection bridging high-school graduation, and (c) propensity-score matching. Students in Hong Kong were first surveyed in their final year of high school (N = 667) and then again roughly 1.5 years post-graduation (N = 463). SS students reported lower other-gender relationship efficacy than CE students at both times (β = -0.21) but no difference in mixed-gender anxiety. Mixed-gender anxiety increased in both groups over time (β = 0.85 to 1.07). Importantly, students who initially reported lower other-gender relationship efficacy later reported more mixed-gender anxiety (β = -0.15 to -0.19). Additionally, cross-lagged effects showed school type indirectly predicted mixed-gender anxiety through relationship efficacy (β = 0.03). These associations appeared even after controlling for general social anxiety and were evident across gender and sexual orientation groups. The study suggests potentially negative effects of SS schooling on mixed-gender interpersonal outcomes and demonstrates the value of propensity score matching and longitudinal designs that can show ways that SS and CE students develop across critical life transitions. Results have implications for peer-exposure and self-efficacy theories and for designing school-based programs to help students build greater cross-gender interpersonal competency.

Initial Development of a Situation-based Measure of Emerging Adults' Social Competence in their Same-gender Friendships

This paper describes the development of a situation-based tool to assess emerging adults' social competence with same-gender friends, providing information about (1) challenges occurring in these relationships, (2) the behaviors used to manage these situations, and (3) the perceived effectiveness of these strategies. Undergraduates (N = 747; 409 women; M_age  = 20.16, SD = 1.43) participated in five studies. Transgressions, conflicts of interest, and support situations emerged as key challenges, and emerging adults reported using aggressive, assertive, avoidant, and apologizing behaviors to manage these situations. In general, apologizing and assertive behaviors were judged more effective than aggressive or avoidant behaviors. Results yielded the Inventory of Friendship Challenges for Emerging Adults (IFCEA), which showed expected associations with measures of interpersonal behavior.

Spanish Women Making Risky Decisions in the Social Domain: The Mediating Role of Femininity and Fear of Negative Evaluation

Authors have empirically evidenced that cultural stereotypes influence gender-typed behavior. With the present work, we have added to this literature by demonstrating that gender roles can explain sex differences in risk-taking, a stereotypically masculine domain. Our aim was to replicate previous findings and to analyze what variables affect women making risky decisions in the social domain. A sample composed of 417 Spanish participants (281 women and 136 men), between 17 and 30 years old (M = 22.34, SD = 3.01), answered a set of self-report measures referring to femininity, fear of negative evaluation, and social risk-taking. According to the main results, sex indirectly linked to risk-taking in the social domain, through femininity and fear of negative evaluation. Specifically, women (vs. men) self-reported higher feminine traits, which were associated with increased fear of negative evaluation, which in turn was associated with less risky decisions in the social domain. Thus, we have showed the relationship between gender roles and women's behaviors in a stereotypically masculine domain (risk-taking). Our findings highlight the necessity of considering a gender-based perspective in the field of risk-taking, showing that not all women make more risky decisions in the social domain.

The Sexual Double Standard in the Real World

Abstract. The sexual double standard (SDS) has traditionally been studied by examining evaluations of hypothetical targets. Although much knowledge has been gained regarding the SDS by using this methodology, the literature thus far has suffered from a lack of ecological validity. The goal of the present study was to determine whether the SDS emerged in evaluations of participants’ real-life friends and acquaintances. Participants ( n = 4,455) evaluated a single, randomly assigned male or female friend or acquaintance whose sexual history they were familiar with. Women were evaluated more negatively as their number of sexual partners increased, whereas number of partners was not related to evaluations of men. The SDS was not moderated by the closeness of the relationship between the participant and the target person.