Study On Scale Development And Its Mediation Model Of Self-stigma Of Leftover Women

Nowadays,along with the intensified “singleness trend”,there comes the “urge of marriage” on singles from their family and friends or even public media.Gender ideology which puts great attention and emphasis on "family standard" for women,specifically brings unmarried single women to the focus of attention.The word "leftover women" arises at the historic moment and gradually becomes a popular vocabulary in people's daily life.Especially in a society filled with gender bias,unmarried single women over a certain age limit are not accepted by public opinion and social norms,thus in terms of negative stereotypes,prejudice and discrimination forming the so-called leftover-women stigma.Nowadays women tend to set up themselves as "leftover women" at a younger age.Family,friends,the concept of social public opinion and deep-rooted traditional gender culture have brought huge psychological pressure and negative emotions to unmarried single women.Whereupon,when they identify and internalize the negative stereotypes and stigmatized attitudes of "leftover women" label,the "self-stigma of leftover women " is formed and may result in anxious and depressive emotions which related to self-deprecation and low self-esteem and relevant behaviors such as eager for or resist marriage.Notwithstanding,there are several shortcomings in existing studies:(1)absence of the unitary definition of leftover women;(2)absence of empirical research on connotation of leftover women;(3)absence of relative measuring tools and research on psychological experience of women on which have been stuck the leftover-women label.In order to solve the problems mentioned above,the current research that selects single women's self-recognition degree of “leftover women” as a sample selection perspective,with the theme of “self-stigma of leftover women” has conducted the following studys:The purpose of Study 1 was to develop an effective measurement of self-stigma of leftover women for exploring and quantifying their internalization of the leftover-women stigma in terms of cognition,emotion and behavior.The Cognitive-behavior Theory which emphasizes three-dimensional system of cognitive,emotional and behavioral responses has served as the research framework.On the basis of combination with related theories,case interview and questionnaire survey,we summarized and refined the representative terms.Via collecting and analyzing the original questionnaire's data,by means of terms analysis,exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis,the " Self-Stigma of Leftover Women Scale" had been developd including 19 items,forming a hierarchical model including one secondary factor(self-stigma of leftover women)and four primary factors(stereotype endorsement,depressive feelings,stigma adaptation,and stigma resistance),and certifying that the Self-stigma of leftover women was a multi-level and multi-dimensional structure.In the aspect of reliability,the internal consistency coefficient of the total scale was 0.959,and the internal consistency coefficient of each dimension ranged from 0.736 to 0.943.In the aspect of validity,the statistical analysis of content validity,structural validity and criterion validity had proved that this scale had good validity.Fine reliability and validity showed that the scale could be used to measure the self-stigma of leftover women.The purpose of Study 2 was to discuss characteristics and differences of self-stigma of leftover women in age,primary family structure,education degree and monthly income level.Firstly,the general characteristics of self-stigma of leftover women was analyzed and the result showed that the level of self-stigma of leftover women of these single unmarried women who had endorsed the leftover-women label was moderately low,meanwhile,proportion of samples with high levels of self-stigma of leftover women was small.Secondly,by means of the analysis of variance,significant differences between age groups and the primary family structure had been found.Divided by five years,self-stigma of leftover women(as well as its four dimensions)in the youngest group(20 to 24 years old)was significantly lower than other older groups and that in the second youngest group(25 to 29 years old)was significantly lower than the two elder groups(30 to 34 years old/ 35 or older).Otherwise,as to primary family structure,the results showed that self-stigma of leftover women(as well as its three factors: stereotype endorsement,depressive feelings and stigma adaptation)of participants with married siblings was significantly higher than participants with unmarried siblings and participants without siblings.The purpose of Study 3 was to examine the mediating effects of self-stigma of leftover women in the relationship between benevolent sexism and mate choice anxiety.By analyzing the relationship of benevolent sexism,self-stigma of leftover women and mate choice anxiety,we found that with self-stigma of leftover women as the mediator controlled,the direct link between benevolent sexism and mate choice anxiey was not significant,notwithstanding,the mediating effect of self-stigma of leftover women was significant.These results suggest that it is benevolent sexism that contributed to the self-stigma of leftover women,which,in turn,mediately influenced mate choice anxiety.Overall,the current study put forward innovative perspective from individual's psychological experience of "leftover-women" label and select single unmarried women who to some certain extent self-recognized as "leftover women" as the research sample,to explore the influence of "leftover-women" label on their cognition,emotion and behaviors.This study is to explore the connotation of self-stigma of leftover women,develop the effective measurement,quantitatively analyze the general characteristics and demographical differences of self-stigma of leftover women,establish mediation model of self-stigma of leftover women and its related factors and finally play important roles of theorically and practically expanding relavent researches of leftover and providing psychological intervention for them.