Characteristics of Significant Dating Relationships: Male Versus Female Initiators, Idealized Versus Actual Settings

Summary

The present study assessed discrepancies between single women's (N = 84) perceptions of idealized settings versus actual locations where significant opposite-sex relationships began. In addition, the effects of female violations of sex-role stereotypic behaviors (i.e., asking males for the first date) were assessed. While approximately three-fourths of all the idealized as well as actual locations involved only five settings (work, friends, school, parties, bars), over 50 percent of the women's perceived ideal settings did not match the actual places where their significant relationships occurred. When females adopted nontraditional sex-role behaviors, at least for the most significant relationship, the length of the relationship was nine months shorter than for those adhering to conventional sex-role stereotypic behaviors. Relationships between, on the one hand, ideal and actual settings and, on the other, characteristics of the relationship (e.g., male versus female initiators, still friends, or dating) and demographic variables (e.g., age, education, religious orientation) were examined.