Jealousy, Violence, and Sexual Ambivalence in Adolescent Students According to Emotional Dependency in the Couple Relationship

Abstract

Background: Emotional dependency in couples involves excessive and dysfunctional emotional bonding. Aims: This work aimed to determine the relationship between violence, jealousy, and ambivalent sexism according to emotional dependence in adolescent student couples. Methods: A cross-sectional study. A total of 234 Spanish adolescents (69.7% female, Mage = 16.77, SD = 1.11) participated in the study. Participants completed an ad hoc interview and several validated tests (Partner’s Emotional Dependency Scale, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, the Jealousy subscale of the Love Addiction Scale, the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationship Inventory). Results: Of the sample, 40.6% indicated high emotional dependence and 14.5% extreme emotional dependence. Differences were observed according to gender (t = 3.92, p < 0.001), with adolescent boys scoring higher than adolescent girls. Extremely emotionally dependent participants showed differences in both violence (sexual, relational, verbal, and physical) and ambivalent sexism (hostile, benevolent) and jealousy scores. Generating a predictive model of emotional dependence, with the variable jealousy and ambivalent sexism as predictor variables, it was found that jealousy has the greatest predictive and major explanatory capacity (R2 = 0.297); with an R2 = 0.334. However, the contribution of the ASI-Hostile subscale was not significant when the ASI-Benevolent subscale was introduced into the model. Further, in a second model where the scores on jealousy and the couple conflict inventory’s subscales were considered as predictors, are again jealousy makes the greatest predictive contribution and shows the greatest explanatory capacity (R2 = 0.296). It was found that the contribution is significant only for the predictive capacity of Sexual Violence and Relational Violence. In this sense, the educational context is one of the propitious places to detect and correct behaviors that may be indicative of potentially unbalanced and unbalancing relationships for adolescents.