Het verband tussen traditionele SDS-attituden van peers en impliciete SDS-stereotypen van adolescenten.

Abstract

This study examined peer attitudes towards the traditional (hetero)sexual double standard (SDS), adolescents’ gender and the interaction between them in relation to SDS-stereotypes of adolescents. Traditional SDS-stereotypes include the different expectations of sexual behavior of men and women. This study focused specifically on implicit SDS-stereotypes, since they have been proven to be better predictors of behavior than explicit stereotypes. SDS-attitudes are evaluations of sexual behavior of men and women, ranging from traditional to reverse. The participants (aged 16-20 years, N = 563, Mage = 17.15, 41.7% boys) were high school students living in the Netherlands. The participants completed an online questionnaire via Limesurvey to assess their SDS-stereotypes, in a classroom with a student assistant always present. Adolescents’ implicit SDS-stereotypes were measured by an implicit association task (IAT). This task measured automatic associations between sexually active and sexually passive concepts and boy and girl names. In addition, the participants answered questions about the attitudes of peers. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed. The results showed that the relationship between peer SDS-attitudes and adolescents’ SDS-stereotypes was no different for boys and girls. This implies that in order to reduce the traditional SDS, sex education should focus on similarities instead of differences between boys and girls.