ORIGINAL ARTICLE Competitiveness, Gender, and Adjustment Among Adolescents David R. Hibbard & Duane Buhrmester Published online: 23 June 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract This study explored whether trait competitive- ness in late adolescence is more detrimental to females’ than males’ social and psychological adjustment. Two types of competitiveness were studied, competing to win (CW; to dominate others) and competing to excel (CE; to surpass personal goals). Questionnaire ratings (by self and others) of 110 (53 females, 57 males, Mage 17.9 years) predom- inantly Caucasian (88.9%) high school students in northern Texas, USA were gathered. Males were higher on CW than females, but there were no gender differences on CE. For females, CW was associated with greater depression and loneliness, and with fewer and less close friendships. CE was associated with higher self-esteem and less depression for both genders, but was largely unrelated to social adjustment. Keywords Competitiveness . Gender differences . Late adolescence Introduction Individualistic-oriented societies greatly value competitive- ness. Competitiveness is, however, both a virtue and a vice. One person’ s win can be another person’ s loss, and the drive to be better than others, when taken too far, can appear ruthless and selfish. Thus, trait competitiveness may have social and emotional downsides. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the associations between trait competitiveness and individual adjustment during late adolescence. Our guiding theoretical assumption was that mismatches between gender role expectations and types of competitiveness give rise to adjustment tradeoffs (see Crick 1997; Rose and Rudolph 2006), especially for females. We gathered questionnaire measures from multiple informants (self, parent, and friend) to evaluate gender differences in levels of competitiveness and in the strength of associations among competitiveness, emotional well-being and interper- sonal adjustment. The study builds on past research with children and adults by filling in gaps in our understanding about how gender-related norms about competitiveness play out as older adolescents construct identities to project into the future. Because our sample was USA high school students, the findings may not generalize beyond individ- ualistic western cultures where competitiveness is common. Nonetheless, our findings should serve as a starting point for evaluating whether similar dynamics are at work in other cultural contexts. Within mainstream American culture, the effects of competitiveness likely differ for males and females (Schneider et al. 2005). Research on gender stereotypes reveals that trait competitiveness is rated both as more typical of adult males (Rosenkrantz et al. 1968) and as more desirable for males than for females (Bem 1974). Gender socialization has been conceptualized in terms of two different cultures that give rise to different gender-related priorities and social interaction styles (e.g., Brown and Gilligan 1992; Maccoby 1990). The masculine or “agentic” social interaction style is status-oriented and focuses on goals of dominance, instrumental rewards, and asymmetry D. R. Hibbard (*) Psychology Department, California State University, Chico, 400 West First Street, Chico, CA 95929-0234, USA e-mail: drhibbard@csuchico.edu D. Buhrmester School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA Sex Roles (2010) 63:412–424 DOI 10.1007/s11199-010-9809-z