Predicting Gender Roles Based on Implicit and Explicit Ambivalent Sexism in Adolescents

This study investigates the relationship between implicit and explicit ambivalent sexism with gender roles, and predicting the gender roles based on sexist attitudes of adolescents.

In terms of goal and research methodology, this study was an applied and descriptive-correlational design, respectively. The statistical population of the study consisted of all adolescents aged 12 to 18 years old in Tabriz who were studying in one of the schools of this city. The sample was chosen throughout the available sampling and consisted of 122 adolescents. In order to measure the research variables, the Thomas & Robinson (1981) Gender Roles Questionnaire, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory Scale (Glick and Fiske, 1996), and the Implicit Association Test of Ambivalent Sexism (Greenwald, McGhee, et al., 1998; de Oliveira Laux, Ksenofontov, et al, 2015) were used. SPSS-26 was used to analyze the data.

Findings showed a positive correlation between implicit and explicit benevolent sexism with masculine gender roles (p < .01), and a negative correlation between explicit and implicit hostile sexism with feminine gender roles (p < .01). Moreover, regression analyses showed that explicit and implicit hostile sexism could predict feminine gender roles (p < .01), while implicit and explicit benevolent sexism could significantly predict masculine gender roles (p < .01). Findings are discussed in light of Iranian culture. In addition, the findings showed that the research variables predict 19.5% of the variance of feminine gender roles, and 17% of the variance of masculine gender roles.

Ambivalent sexist attitudes can be used to predicting gender roles in adolescents.