Parental Acceptance-Rejection, Social Cynicism and Ambivalent Sexism in Young Adult Women

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental acceptance-rejection, social cynicism, and ambivalent sexism in young adult women. It was hypothesized that parental acceptance-rejection would significantly correlate with and predict social cynicism and ambivalent sexism, and significant socio-demographic differences would be evident across the study variables. Through a cross-sectional research design, a sample of 205 young adult women, aged 18-26 years (M = 21.25, SD = 2.1), were recruited in-person through non-probability purposive sampling. The assessment tools included a self-developed Sociodemographic Information Sheet, Short Form of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Malik et al., 2012), Social Cynicism Scale for Women (Younas et al., 2023), and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996). SPSS version 23 was used to analyze the data. The findings showed paternal warmth/affection negatively correlated with, and predicted, institutional cynicism while paternal-undifferentiated rejection and paternal- hostility/aggression were negatively associated with dispositional cynicism. Moreover, paternal indifference/neglect positively correlated with, and predicted benevolent sexism. Single women reported higher paternal warmth, women from nuclear families exhibited higher cynicism scores, and urban women reported higher maternal indifference/neglect. This study suggests the need for interventions that promote positive parenting practices and challenge traditional gender norms to mitigate distrustful and sexist attitudes in young adult women.