Adolescent Female Gender Identity and Attraction to Male Bullies and Victims

Abstract

This study assessed whether adolescent females' gender role identity was related to self-reported attraction and likelihood of dating an adolescent male bully and victim of bullying. Thirty-six female adolescents from ninth and tenth grade (mean age = 15 years; 69.2% White; 30.8% non-White) from a predominantly White, city high school in the Mid-Atlantic United States, completed the Original Form of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (1981) and examined three photographs and listened to a verbal account portraying two adolescent males in an episode of physical and verbal bullying. Multiple regression analysis revealed that masculine gender identity status among adolescent females was a significant negative predictor of attraction to a male adolescent bully.