Acculturation, ambivalent sexism, and attitudes toward women who engage in premarital sex among Chinese American young adults

This dissertation examines the relationship between level of acculturation, ambivalent sexism, and attitudes toward women who engage in premarital sex among Chinese/Chinese American young adults. There is a lack of research on the acculturation process and its effects on cultural identity formation. Even more lacking in the literature are studies on sexism and sexual issues among Chinese Americans. During the developmental process, negotiation of cultural beliefs and moral values take place. With vast differences in cultural expectations between the Chinese and American cultures, the negotiation process could lead to internal conflicts, which may affect an individual's psychological well-being. Thus, the present investigation aimed to explore these variables.; These issues were explored empirically utilizing a non-random sample consisting of 370 Chinese/Chinese Americans between the ages of 18 to 35. Self-report measures were used to evaluate the variables under investigation. Through an online survey, participants responded to the Suinn-Lew Asian Self Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA) (Suinn, Rickard-Figueroa, Lew, & Vigil, 1987), the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) (Glick & Fiske, 1996), the Attitudes Toward Women Who Have Premarital Sex Questionnaire (Sakalli-Ugurlu & Glick, 2003), and a demographic questionnaire.; Results revealed that as expected, acculturation was inversely correlated to hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and negative attitudes toward women who have premarital sex. Furthermore, men exhibited significantly more hostile sexism and benevolent sexism than women. Results further indicated that hostile and benevolent sexism both predicted negative attitudes toward women who engaged in premarital sex among male and female participants.; Current study findings contributed to the limited literature on culturally sensitive issues and provided some important information relevant for clinicians and mental health professionals when working with Chinese minorities. The empirical evidence gathered in this research warrant further investigation on issues of acculturation, sexism, and sexual attitudes to better understand the psychological and developmental well-being of the Chinese population in the United States.