GENDER DIFFERENCES IN STANDARDS FOR ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS

Why is it that women often report more problems in their romantic rela tionships than do men? One explanation apparent in the literature is t hat women may View different standards as important for relationships than do their male counterparts and, as a consequence, women may be le ss likely to have their standards met. A second explanation is that wh ile women and men may not differ in terms of the importance they assoc iate with various standards, the experiences they have in their romant ic relationships map lead women to believe their standards are not ful filled as often as do men. The current study offers a preliminary test of these two rival explanations and found greater support for the lat ter. Analyses of two composite measures and more detailed factor-based measures generally indicated that the standards held by women men inv olved in heterosexual romantic relationships were rated similar in imp ortance. Women, tended to note that their standards were met less full y than did men. Further, compared to men, women reported a greater dis crepancy between the importance they associated with Various standards and the extent to which the standards were fulfilled in the context o f their relationship. The ability of two different theoretical models to predict and explain these findings is discussed, as are the implica tions of the results for future research.