Adolescents’ Collective Action Intentions for Gender Equality in Norway and Poland: Role of Gender Identification, Perceived Discrimination, and Well‐Being

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examined the role of gender identification and perceived gender discrimination on collective action intentions for gender equality among adolescent boys and girls in two countries with different levels of gender equality: Poland and Norway. Additionally, we explored the mediating role of well‐being, which has been shown to be associated positively with gender identity and negatively with perceived discrimination. Utilising data from 1560 adolescents ( M age = 16.6, SD age = 0.6), we found that perceived gender discrimination, but not gender identification, predicted collective action intentions among all groups. Perceived discrimination on the basis of being a man predicted lower willingness to engage in collective action among Norwegian boys but did the opposite among Polish boys. Furthermore, we found that well‐being may be a mechanism that plays a role in the collective action intentions of adolescent girls, but not boys. More specifically, for the Polish adolescent girls, well‐being appeared to underlie the effect of gender identification and perceived gender discrimination on collective action intentions for gender equality. These results highlight the importance of individual‐level and contextual factors that may influence collective action intentions among different groups. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.