According to the ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), sexism consists of a hostile and a benevolent component, which do not represent two opposite poles of this phenomenon, but occur simultaneously. Both forms of sexism can have detrimental consequences on the lives and functioning of (primarily) women, both in their private and professional lives. Disruptive behaviour is behaviour which occurs in social interaction and is not disruptive to the person performing it, but is disruptive to their social environment (Vec, 2011). It consists of a wide range of behaviours, in a school environment it ranges from naughtiness to more severe antisocial behaviours, and is a complex phenomenon that can be attributed to factors at the level of the individual, group and institution (Vec, 2011). For teachers, disruptive behaviour represents one of the main stress factors of their profession (Depolli Steiner, 2011; Slivar, 2009; Skok & Mihalič, 1996), therefore a discourse about its causes and potential ways of eliminating it is necessary for the quality of the educational process. The subject of the study were adolescents’ sexist attitudes (assessed using The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory – ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996), and their disruptive behaviour (assessed using the Disruptive Behavior Scale Professed by Students – DPS-PS; Veiga, 2008, and reported by their teachers). The sample included 390 students and 24 teachers in secondary schools in Ljubljana. The results indicated that adolescent boys express higher levels of sexist attitudes than adolescent girls, especially on the hostile sexism scale. Adolescent girls, on the other hand, scored higher on the benevolent sexism scale in comparison to the hostile sexism scale. Disruptive behaviour, reported by adolescents on a binary scale (YES/NO), cannot be predicted based on The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) score and the teacher’s gender, however The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) scores are associated with the Disruptive Behaviour Scale Professed by Students (DPS-PS) scores – adolescents who report on higher levels of ambivalent sexism also report on higher levels of disruptive behaviour at school. In addition, demographic factors, such as the adolescent’s gender and status of an athlete or an artist, as well as the length of current employment for the teachers, are also associated with disruptive behaviour. The study begins to explore the relationship between adolescents’ sexist attitudes and their disruptive behaviour and provides guidelines for planning interventions that could help reduce disruptive behaviour in secondary schools by modifying adolescents’ attitudes toward women.
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