African American young adults' perceptions of the ideal mate for long-term romantic relationships and short-term sexual relationships

Date

2008-05-31

Authors

Bradshaw, Joe

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Abstract

This study evaluated the influence of hip hop music videos on the perception of ideal mates among African Americans. Comparison of African American young adults' desirable traits for long-term romantic partners and short-term sexual partners were also examined. African American college students completed questionnaires involving long-term and short-term mate selection and recorded the amount of time spent watching hip hop related television and the number of hip hop music videos viewed in a span of 5 days. Young African Americans were found to place similar emphasis on the internal and external attributes for both short-term sexual and long-term romantic relationships. The findings of this study also indicated no gender differences among young African Americans in reference to how important they perceived the physical attractiveness, social status, or sexual characteristics of a potential mate for both a short-term sexual relationship and a long-term romantic relationship. Exposure to hip hop music videos and viewing of hip hop related television programming was not significantly (p > .05) related to the internal or external attributes desired for long-term romantic relationships. For short-term sexual relationships, no significant (p > .05) relationship was found for either hip hop television viewing and internal attributes or hip hop television viewing and external attributes; also for short-term sexual relationships, there was no significant (p > .05) relationship between hip hop video exposure and external attributes, but there was a significant (p < .05) relationship between hip hop music video exposure and internal attributes.

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Keywords

African American young adults, Communication and the arts, Social sciences, African-American, Hip-hop, Mate selection, Romantic relationships, Sexual relationships, Television, Television viewing

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