Sexism in adolescent relationships: A systematic review

Abstract

The aim of this theoretical study is to learn which cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, and behavioural variables involved in relationships are related to sexist attitudes by adolescents and how they relate to one another. After searching scientific articles published between 2005 and 2018 on PsycINFO, Psicodoc, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, 1,170 studies were obtained. After conducting the selection process, 20 were included in the review. The results of these studies show that adolescents who display attitudes that are more sexist have a more positive attitude towards intimate partner violence, greater sexual risk behaviours, greater attraction to sexist partners, greater support for the myth of idealized love and myth of love-abuse link, greater emotional dependence on the partner, and poorer quality in relationships, revealing gender-based differences in some of the mentioned variables. It is concluded that sexist attitudes are related to harmful forms of intimate interaction among teenagers.