Myths of romantic love and self-esteem in adolescents

Abstract

The myths of romantic love are socially constructed upon irrational beliefs about the nature of love, which stipulates what “true love” is, which the desirable characteristics are in a future partner, the importance of love, future expectations and the type of relationship. The presence of these romantic beliefs favours or maintains gender violence within the couple and constitutes the essence of control-based relationships, which are mainly characterized by lower self-esteem. The purpose of this study is to consider the internalization of the myths of romantic love among a group of adolescents and to analyse their relationship in relation with their self-esteem. To achieve this objective, a sample of 321 participants (52% men and 48% women), amongst 11 and 18 years of age, completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire and the Romantic Love Myths Scale, by Luzón, Ramos, Recio and De La Peña. The analysis showed significant differences in the internalization of romantic myths according to the gender in favour of man, specifically in the miths of jealousy (Chi2=25,50; p.001), omnipotence (Chi2=28,96; p.001), marriage (Chi2=7,60; p=.006), total submission (Chi2=13,80; p=.001) and in the groups of myths “Love is the most importat and requires total delivery” (Chi2=33,80; p.001), “Love as possession and exclusivity” (Chi2=26,59; p.001) and “Love can do anything” (Chi2=25,19; p.001). On the other hand, is observed in the total sample a significant and inverse relationship between self-esteem and the group of myths “Love can do everything” (rho=-.121*) and the myths of omnipotence (rho=-.121*) and exclusivity (rho=-.128*). In view of these results, two conclusions are reached. On the one hand, that men assume more romantic beliefs than woman. On the other hand, that people with lower self-steem have a stronguer internalization of romantic beliefs. Based on these findings, both differences between genders about the internalization of romantic myths and the role of self-esteem should be considered in future interventions.

Keywords

• amor romántico
• mitos
• género
• autoestima