There are emotional consequences for mismatches between one’s actions and idealized relationship scripts. Enacting ideal romantic relationship scripts
involves adequate performance of the romantic role-identity and in turn leads to positive self-
evaluations and improved mental health (Thoits 1991). Conversely, diverging from role-identity scripts contributes to emotional distress and mood disorders such as depression. Based on the above discussion, relationship authenticity likely enhances involves the enactment of idealized romantic scripts, thereby verifying one’s identity as a romantic partner. Conversely, mismatches between behavior and one’s ideal script inhibit role-identity performances, thereby threatening romantic role-identities (Thoits 2013). Thus, deviating from ideal sequences—or engaging in romantic relationship inauthenticity—harms mental health to the extent that it involves a mismatch between actions and romantic partner role-identity scripts. Accordingly, I hypothesize:
Hypothesis 1: Romantic relationship 'd prefer to have dinner in this restaurant pic.twitter.com/qaiYp6o6ugin authenticity is positively associated with mental health.
As identities are hierarchically nested within individuals, adequate performance of salient identities may have especially important consequences for mental health. As research on adolescent relationships suggests, romantic relationships are particularly important for girls’ identities, and thus relationship inauthenticity may have especially strong effects on girls’ mental health.
Gender and Inauthentic Romances
Thoits (2013) proposes that individuals organize their role-identities in prominence hierarchies. The prominence of a role-identity is primarily a function of the degree to which others positively support the identity, the extent of personal commitment to and investment in the identity, and the intrinsic and extrinsic gratifications that are gained through adequate role performance. Importantly, competent performance of prominent roles entails greater social rewards than less prominent roles. Conversely, inadequate performances of prominent role-identities are more psychologically damaging than inadequate performances of less salient roles.
Sociological perspectives suggest that romantic relationships may be particularly prominent role-identities for girls (Rosenfield and Mouzon 2013; Simon and Barrett 2010). According to these perspectives, gender socialization leads girls to develop senses of self that are more intimately bound to interpersonal relationships. For instance, Cross and Madson (1997) propose that higher rates of assigning childcare and other domestic tasks leads girls to a heightened sense of nurturance and relatedness from an early age. Conversely, boys more often engage in activities and tasks outside of the home that allow more freedom and independence. In the end, girls are socialized to fully consider relationships and pursue harmony with others, while boys are socialized to distinguish themselves from others (Markus and Kitayama 1991).
The importance of interpersonal relationships for girls’ developing sense of self is revealed in recent research on adolescence. As Impett, Schooler, and Tolman (2006) note, psychological research focusing on girls’ desire to maintain relationships suggests that interpersonal relationships are especially salient aspects of girls’ self-concepts. Qualitative sociological research also highlights the importance of romantic relationships in girls’ developing self-concepts. For instance, Eder, Evans, and Parker’s (1995) ethnography of a middle school revealed the importance of “being in love” with a boy for girls’ senses of self. Pascoe’s (2007) ethnography of a high school suggests that a girl’s status within the school peer hierarchy is intimately linked to the status of boy with whom she is romantically involved. While these studies do not explicitly focus on identity, they do suggest that romantic relationships are more salient components of girls’ self-concepts when compared with boys. In turn, behavioral divergence from ideal scripts of romantic partner roles—as captured by romantic relationship inauthenticity—may have especially important consequences for girls’ mental health. This is because the performance of relationship scripts through authentic behavior becomes increasingly tied to mental health as such role-identities become more salient for an individual. This leads to the second hypothesis:
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