Girls are proven to be more sensitive when it comes to competing to win

Jul 6, 2010 15:13 GMT  ·  By

Being competitive has its good and its bad parts. Competing to win is detrimental to girls’ social relationships and it may cause depression, whereas for boys the results are completely different. Nevertheless, competing to excel is great for both genders. The consequences of competitiveness on psychological well-being and social role in adolescents depends on both the type of competitiveness and the teenager’s gender. This is the result of a study made by Dr. David Hibbard from California State University and Dr. Duane Buhrmester from the University of Texas and published in Springer's journal Sex Roles.

In a competition, one wins and the other loses and if the competitiveness is taken too far, it may lead to selfishness and lack of compassion. It may also have social and emotional downsides and its effects are different for males and females. Research shows that competitiveness is considered to be more typical and more desirable for adult males than for females. To date, the implications for male and female competitiveness have not yet been fully investigated.

Hibbard and Buhrmester’s analyzed the effects of two types of competitiveness on teenagers’ psychological well-being and social functioning: competing to win, to dominate and be better than others and competing to excel, to perform well and surpass personal goals. 110 subjects (twelfth-grade high school students from the Richardson Independent School District in Dallas, their best same gender friends and their parents) completed questionnaires combining competitiveness, gender-role orientation, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, loneliness, aggression, empathy, close relationship qualities, and school grades.

Teenage boys scored higher than girls on “competing to win” but the results for “competing to excel” presented no major differences. For girls, competing to win is a cause for depression, loneliness and less close and fewer friendships. Competing to excel was related with good self-esteem for both categories, but it had absolutely no connection with social functioning.

The two scientists' conclusion was that what this study explored was “whether competitiveness as a motivational orientation is good or bad for males and females. The findings clarify, to some degree, western cultures’ ‘ambivalence’ about competitiveness”. Competition leads to well-being if one is talking about competing to improve oneself or excel. “On the other hand, if one is talking about competing to win or show dominance over others, then females seem to pay a socio-emotional price.”