…but their audience may say “no for it”.

(Posted by Maya)

The article I’m reviewing today is titled “Opinions Towards Sexual Partners with a Large Age Difference,” and it appeared in 2001 in the Marriage and Family Review. It deals with the perceptions people have of age-gap relationships. Unfortunately, more often than not, relationships with significant age differences are not viewed in a positive light, particularly older woman/younger man couplings.

The introductory paragraphs, as befits a scientific journal article, comments on previous research on the topic. Most interestingly, the authors paraphrase research that states:

“Women valued resources more than men did and most placed great importance on a man’s status, ambition and industriousness, although the difference between the sexes varied between countries. Men placed most importance on youth and appearance and preferred a partner to be on average 2.66 years younger, but women wanted a partner to be 3.42 years older.”

The study was made up of a questionnaire asking participants about their feelings toward photographs of couples with a large age difference. They were asked to estimate the ages of each partner, as well as state the age of their ideal partner, and the oldest and youngest people “they would consider having a relationship with.” Lastly, they were asked their opinion about different age-gap scenarios, e.g.: “David who is 51 years old is dating Jennifer who is 61 years old.”

There were five hypotheses and they were all supported.

  • First of all, age-gap relationships were seen as generally unacceptable, to be of a short duration, and their respective partners to have little in common with each other.
  • Second, older woman/younger man relationships were regarded as less acceptable and less happy than younger woman/older man relationships.
  • Third, the importance of having adequate resources was seen as being greater in direct proportion to the age difference.
  • Fourth, the younger partner was seen as looking for a parental figure, especially in unions where the age difference was 15 years or more – which were seen as less acceptable than those with an age gap of five to ten years.
  • Lastly, there were “no effects of gender or respondent age on the attitudes of people regarding age-different relationships.”

Maya’s Commentary:

Unfortunately, the study is not very comprehensive, having as it does a small sample size – there were 45 participants in the pilot study and 122 participants in the main study – made up mainly of white Protestant respondents. It is clear, however – and the article states as much – that people have strong, negative feelings towards age-different pairings. The politically correct view is that age does not matter in romantic relationships; however, the study suggests the opposite. More research, with greater sample sizes, is needed to give us an even better idea of how age-gap relationships are viewed by others.

Also, I thought I should mention a short article by Jennifer Benjamin in the June 2007 issue of Cosmopolitan. In brief, it recommends that women date older men, and lists several reasons for doing so. Unfortunately, I don’t have a link to it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it – unless, of course, you happen to have a back issue (it’s on page 169). It is, I think, representative of the media’s take on age-gap relationships. They all pretty much say “Go for it!” citing celebrity couples as examples of successful age-different unions. But what the media think is not necessarily what their audience thinks. Biases continue to exist against such relationships; hopefully, with time, these biases will dissolve. Also, remember the name “Jennifer” – it is used as a derogatory term for the younger woman in an age-gap relationship in a book called “Jennifer Fever,” which I will eventually review. I just thought I’d throw that in, seeing as the name appeared twice in this post!

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