Research on the linkage between sex diversity and relationship conflict has yielded inconsistent findings. In efforts to address this inconsistency and to better understand what contributes to group member perceptions of relationship conflict, interrelationships among sex dissimilarity, gender identity, and relationship conflict were examined utilizing theoretical frameworks from the literatures on identity, status, sex diversity, and asymmetrical effects. Results show that gender social identity moderated the effects of sex dissimilarity on relationship conflict such that in the presence of a strong gender social identity, sex dissimilarity increased perceptions of relationship conflict. This effect was stronger for men than for women, such that men with strong gender social identities in groups in which they were sex dissimilar had greater perceptions of relationship conflict. In addition, a significant three-way interaction was found, in which sex-dissimilar individuals with strong gender social and personal identities perceived a particularly high level of relationship conflict.
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