Autonomy-connectedness and gender

The present study aimed to examine gender differences in autonomy-connectedness in a large, Dutch, representative community sample (N = 2,256). All participants completed the Autonomy-Connectedness-Scale (ACS-30; Bekker and van Assen, J Pers Assess 86:51-60, 2006) with subscales self-awareness (SA), sensitivity to others (SO), and capacity to manage new situations (CMNS), and a scale measuring demographic factors. We found much higher SO in women than in men, and slightly higher scores of men on SA and CMNS. Associations between SO and socio-demographic variables related to caring for others could be completely explained by gender, while the associations between SA and CMNS with socio-economic independence variables could only partly be explained by gender. ACS-30 norm scores are presented, and clinical implications of our results are discussed.