Not One Sexual Double Standard but Two? Adolescents’ Attitudes About Appropriate Sexual Behavior

Maud Hensums,Terrence D Jorgensen,Geertjan Overbeek

doi:10.1177/0044118x20957924

Abstract

Popular belief holds that sexual behavior is evaluated more liberally for males than females. However, the assessment of this “sexual double standard” is controversial. Therefore, we investigated measurement equivalence of commonly used items to assess sexual double standards in previous research. Based on established measurement equivalence, we investigated whether adolescents endorsed a sexual double standard. Using data from 455 adolescents ( Mage = 14.51, SD = 0.64), confirmatory factor analyzes showed that the sexual double standard concept was measurement equivalent across sex, and partly across evaluations of the same and opposite sex. Factor analyzes demonstrated that there was not one, but two sexual double standards. Male adolescents evaluated male sexual behavior more liberally than female sexual behavior, but female adolescents evaluated female sexual behavior more liberally than male sexual behavior. This contradicts the traditional notion of the existence of one sexual double standard that favors male and suppresses female sexuality.

Highlights

Popular belief holds that sexual behavior is evaluated more liberally for males than females
The lack of clarity stems from the fact that most of the studies on sexual standards are conducted in the USA and are characterized by methodological limitations in the measurement of sexual double standards in male and female adolescents
The concept of a “sexual double standard” was developed by Reiss (1960), who was the first to classify attitudes toward sexual behavior into categories. These categories were: abstinence, double standard permissiveness without affection, and permissiveness with affection

Summary

Introduction

Popular belief holds that sexual behavior is evaluated more liberally for males than females. According to some female sorority members, male adolescents were appreciated for being sexually active, while female adolescents were brought down for doing the same thing (BNNVARA, 2017) This recent news led to a heated public debate, studies have yielded mixed evidence about whether this sexual double standard exists for adolescents. We first assessed measurement properties of commonly used items for assessing the sexual double standard Based on this assessment of equivalent measurement properties, we examined the existence of the sexual double standard in a sample of Dutch youth by comparing their attitudes about sexually appropriate behaviors of both male and female adolescents. The concept of a “sexual double standard” was developed by Reiss (1960), who was the first to classify attitudes toward (premarital) sexual behavior into categories. Traditional gender-typed behaviors define sexual agency as a male trait, whereas they define sexual passivity as a female trait (Eagly & Wood, 1999)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion