Romantic relationships of adolescents and young adults: Reproducing gendered ideologies and identities?

• Applicant: Professorin Pia Sophia Schober, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 523959019

This project aims to explore how romantic relationships shape young people’s gender ideologies and career-partnership preferences as they transition across adolescence and young adulthood. It seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of gender ideology and identity developments across the life course, which is crucial to make sense of the slow(ing) pace of change towards more gender egalitarian beliefs and practices in many modern post-industrial societies. Studying the formation of gender ideologies and career-partnership preferences in youth is also important, as they have been shown to predict persistently gendered practices and outcomes of adults in various domains. This research assumes a life-course perspective and integrates the conceptualization of gender as a social structure (Risman, 2004) with cognitive-developmental theory (Kohlberg, 1966), social identity theory (Stets & Burke, 2000) and social learning theory (Bandura, 1971) to explore the mechanisms how romantic relationship experiences may slow down young people’s increasing aspirations towards gender equality. We extend previous studies by drawing on representative longitudinal data sets from different country contexts and by exploring three specific mechanisms that may moderate how romantic relationships shape gender beliefs: i) adaptation to one’s partner’s beliefs, ii) relationship quality and communication behaviours, and iii) gender cultures that originate in long-standing differences in family and labour market institutions. Drawing on the German Family Panel pairfam (Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics), we first plan to explore whether transitions into living-apart-together relationships or cohabitations and increasing relationship duration are associated with smaller growth in egalitarian gender ideologies and career-partnership preferences among heterosexual young people, especially women, over time. To gain a better understanding of relevant mechanisms that shape the impact of romantic relationship experience at the interactional couple level, the second part of the project will investigate the importance of attitude alignment between romantic partners and the interdependence with relationship quality and communication behaviours. Third, we will examine whether the expected traditionalising effect of transitions into living-apart-together relationships or cohabitations and increasing relationship duration are stronger in country contexts with more traditional gender cultures. In addition to comparing East and West Germany, we will conduct a cross-nationally comparative analysis of 14 modern postindustrial societies based on two-wave panel data from the Generations and Gender Survey. By investigating the interdependencies with normative context and interactional relationship processes, the project seeks to identify circumstances which facilitate or hinder the undoing of gender in early romantic relationships.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Anna Kurowska