Citation

Szymanski DM, Ikizler AS, Dunn TL. Psychol. Sex. Orientat. Gend. Divers. 2016; 3(1): 1-10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/sgd0000145

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Feminist-relational theories recognize that dominant cultural messages can have a powerful influence on the construction of and behavior in relationships, particularly for members of stigmatized groups. These theories posit that experiences of external and internalized sexism and heterosexism can influence sexual minority women's (SMW) relational schemas (belief systems about how one must be and behave to maintain relationships with others), which in turn may affect their relationship quality (RQ). Our study investigated the relational schema of silencing the self as a possible mediator in the external and internalized sexism and heterosexism-RQ links among 540 SMW who were currently in a romantic relationship. Supporting our hypotheses, results indicated that silencing the self mediated the external sexism-RQ, external heterosexism-RQ, internalized sexism-RQ, and internalized heterosexism-RQ links. The variables accounted for 26% of the variance in silencing the self and 19% of the variance in RQ. Future research directions and clinical implications are discussed.

Language: en