Predictors and Consequences of Involvement in Age-Discrepant Romantic Relationships

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Predictors and Consequences of Involvement in
Age-Discrepant Romantic Relationships

• Amy Bender
• Hanover College
• 2007

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Questions

• Who gets involved in age-discrepant
  relationships?
• Are individuals involved in age-discrepant
  relationships less satisfied?
• Why are they less satisfied?

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Existing Research Who becomes involved in
age-discrepant relationships?

• Demographic characteristics
• People who become involved in age-discrepant
  relationships tend to be older, previously
  married, and have lower levels of education
  (Shenan, 2003).
• Relationship attitudes
• People who become involved in age-discrepant
  relationships tend to have had insecure
  attachments to caregivers as children (Prager,
  1995).

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Existing Research What are the outcomes of these
relationships?

• Attitudes
• Both adults and adolescents believe that
  age-discrepant relationships will be less
  successful than age-similar relationships,
  especially when the woman is older (Cowan, 1984).

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Existing Research What are the outcomes of these
relationships?

• Empirical Research
• Zak (2001) found that individuals in
  age-discrepant relationships reported more
  unselfish, sacrificing love and experienced less
  jealousy than those in age-similar relationships.
  

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Research Question 1

• What are the predictors of involvement in
  age-discrepant relationships?
• Demographic characteristics
• Ethnicity, relationship status, education level
• Ages of parents
• Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

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Research Question 2

• Are people who are involved in age-discrepant
  relationships less satisfied than those who are
  involved in age-similar relationships?
• Examine relationship satisfaction

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Research Question 3

• What is the process by which age-discrepancy is
  linked to satisfaction?
• Examine exchange orientation as the mediator
• Under-benefiting versus over-benefiting exchange
  orientation (Sprecher, 1998)

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Method

• Participants
• - N 69 (14 male, 55 female 85 Caucasian)
• - Age range 18 to 56 years (mean 25 years)
• - Age difference range 0 to 28 years
• 43 younger partner, 10 same age, 15 older partner

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Relationship Status
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Education Level
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Method

• Participants answered questionnaires on-line
• Demographic survey
• Relationship satisfaction scale (Hendrick,1988)
• Exchange-orientation scale (Sprecher, 1998)

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Relationship Satisfaction Scale

• 7-item scale assessing relationship satisfaction
• -How well does partner meet your needs?
• -Likert scale ranging from 1 (poorly) to 5
  (extremely well).
• Reliability alpha .90

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Exchange-Orientation Scale

• 40-item scale assessing amount of exchange within
  relationship
• - Under-benefiting I usually do not forget if
  my partner owes me a favor.
• - Over-benefiting I usually do not forget if
  I owe my partner a favor.
• -Likert scale ranging from 1(strongly
  disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
• Reliability UEO alpha .85 OEO alpha .81

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Results

• What are the predictors of involvement in
  age-discrepant relationships?
• Ethnicity not significant
• Relationship status not significant
• Education level not significant
• Parents age difference r .27, p.03

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Results

• Are people who are involved in age-discrepant
  relationships less satisfied than those who are
  involved in age-similar relationships?
• - Yes. However, the correlation between
  age-discrepancy and satisfaction is significant
  only among participants who were the younger
  partner, r -.49, p .001.

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Results

• What is the process by which age-discrepancy is
  linked to satisfaction? Does exchange orientation
  serve as a mediator?
• UEO
• B.34, p.024
  
  B-.29, p.04
• Age Discrepancy
  Satisfaction
• 
  B-.49, p.001

B-.39, p.01
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Discussion

• People who are involved in age-discrepant
  relationships are more likely to have parents who
  are involved in an age-discrepant relationship
• Younger partners in age-discrepant relationships
  are less satisfied, in part because they feel
  they are under-benefiting