Abstract
We examine whether female and male collegestudents differ in their tendencies to reject negativeevaluative feedback in transactions with parents andwith male and female peers. The predominantly white respondents described specific,“real-life” instances of negative feedbackfrom each of four sources (mother, father, female peer,male peer), rating their relationships with eachfeedback sender (closeness, interaction frequency),characteristics of the feedback itself (importance,negativity, directness), their own emotional response(degree of negative affect), and their rejection (vs.acceptance) of the feedback. Participants also completed aglobal self-esteem measure. Though no simple directeffects of gender upon rejection of feedback wereobtained, women showed an overall pattern of greater rejection of feedback as a consequence ofseveral indirect effects. Women reported receivingfeedback on more important topics, and greaterimportance of feedback was related to less rejection.However, women also tended to receive more negativefeedback from others and tended to respond with strongernegative feelings, both of these variables being linkedto greater rejection of feedback. The results challenge various common assumptions in thegender roles literature.
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Lundgren, D.C., Rudawsky, D.J. Female and Male College Students' Responses to Negative Feedback from Parents and Peers. Sex Roles 39, 409–429 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018823126219
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018823126219