The relationship between different types of objectification, sexual pressure, and relationship satisfaction in Chinese heterosexual dating relationships

Abstract

Although an increasing number of studies are focusing on the relationship between different kinds of objectification and relationship satisfaction, studies have rarely examined these relationships within non-Western samples. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between men’s partner objectification (PO), women’s perceived partner-objectification (PPO), and women’s self-objectification, as well as their link to women’s romantic relationship satisfaction through women’s sexual pressure among Chinese heterosexual college couples ( n = 201 pairs). This study found that women’s PPO mediated the relationship between men’s PO and women’s self-objectification, and there were two paths from men’s PO to women’s relationship satisfaction. First, men’s PO was related to lower women’s relationship satisfaction through increased women’s PPO. Second, men’s PO was associated with greater women’s PPO, which was associated with greater sexual pressure on women and subsequently correlated with women’s lower relationship satisfaction. However, self-objectification was neither significantly directly related to sexual pressure nor relationship satisfaction. These findings indicated that the relationships between the three types of objectification (men’s PO, women’s PPO, and women’s self-objectification) and sexual pressure and relationship satisfaction are different, which contributes to the understanding of the destructive effect of different objectification on relationship satisfaction in Chinese samples.