The Relationship Among College Students’ Ambivalent Sexism,Parental Attachment And Mate Preferences

Ambivalent Sexism Theory suggests that sexism consists of a multidimensional structure that encompasses two distinct but closely related sexism attitudes: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism.Hostile sexism refers to derogatory and negative attitudes towards women who violate traditional gender norms.Benevolent Sexism refers to a gender bias attitude towards women formed subjectively out of the positive emotion of caring for women through specific role restrictions.College students’ gender awareness is influenced by family aspects,parental attachment influences individuals’ ambivalent sexism,and mate preferences are influenced by individual sexism attitudes.Therefore,this study used 619 university students as research subjects,and explored the current situation of ambivalent sexism,parental attachment and mate preferences among university students and the relationship between them through a questionnaire survey,and 9 different levels of ambivalent sexism holders were selected for an interview study to explore the factors influencing ambivalent sexism and the effects of parental attachment and ambivalent sexism on mate preferences.The results of the study showed that:(1)There are significant gender differences in hostile sexism,benevolent sexism,mother-child attachment,warmth-trustworthiness and status-resources in mate preferences among university students.(2)The hostile sexism of male college students is significantly negatively correlated with parental attachment,and significantly positively correlated with the attractiveness-vitality and status-resources in mate choice.The hostile sexism is significantly negatively correlated with mother-child attachment,parental attachment,and the emphasis on warmth-trustworthiness when choosing a mate,and significantly positively correlated with the emphasis on status-resources when choosing a mate;the benevolent sexism is significantly positively correlated with mate preferences;parental attachment is significantly positively correlated with mate preferences among female college students.(3)The relationship between ambivalent sexism and mate preferences is moderated by gender.Boys with high levels of hostile sexism are more focused on the attractiveness-vitality aspect of the trait,and girls with high levels of benevolent sexism placed greater emphasis on characteristics of their partners in the statusresources dimension.(4)Hostile sexism mediates between father-child attachment and warmthtrustworthiness,hostile sexism mediates between mother-child communication and warmth-trustworthiness,benevolent sexism mediates between mother-child trust and warmth-trustworthiness,and benevolent sexism mediates between father-child communication and warmth-trustworthiness.(5)Parental gender roles and family member relationships influence the quality of parental attachment and have an impact on individuals’ levels of sexism,which is reflected in mate preferences.