| dc.description.abstract | This study examined whether internalized sexism and self-silencing mediated the relationship between women's perceived experiences of sexism and psychological distress in a sample of college women. Two hundred and ninety-seven women participated in the study. These participants completed a demographic form, the Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), Outcome Questionnaire 45 (OQ45), and Schedule of Sexist Events (SSE). Path analysis conducted utilizing maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) revealed a hypothesized model that was a poor fit to the data. Psychological distress was significantly and positively predicted by lifetime sexist events, hostile sexism, and self-silencing, but not recent sexist events. Self-silencing was significantly and positively predicted by benevolent sexism. Neither lifetime nor recent sexist events predicted benevolent sexism. A respecified model was developed and demonstrated a good fit to the data. Within this model, hostile sexism, but not benevolent sexism, significantly and positively predicted self-silencing. Additionally, the indirect effect of hostile sexism on psychological distress via self-silencing was significant, providing evidence that self-silencing functioned as a partial mediator in the relationship between hostile sexism and psychological distress. | |
