A Study On The Influential Factors Of Gift-giving Of College Students In Their Intimate Relationships

The constant focus on gift exchange has shaped the enduring imagination of sociology and anthropology.From the paranormal research paradigm created by Mauss,to the in-depth development of the power-relationship paradigm in the field of gift-giving research after Bourdieu,gift exchange has been considered to be closely related to the overall unity and the structural order in a society from beginning to end,thus providing us a cut to inspect all kinds of structural contradictions in the real world.As gift-giving in intimate relationships involves the interaction between two gender roles,it naturally reveals some structural contradictions under the existing gender system.The study focuses on the asymmetrical relation between the sexes in the gift exchange among heterosexual couples,that is the overall fact that "men tend to bear more of the cost of gift-giving than women." According to the research,this is the result of gender performance.Since the traditional gender role norms endows men with the role and obligation of breadwinner,it is easier for men in an intimate relationship to show their adherence to the gender role norms by increasing the expenditure on gift-giving.However,under the gender division of labor model of "the man goes out to work while the woman looks after the house" and social expectation,women try their best to avoid becoming the one who pays more economically in the relationship,and show their gender identity that requires passivity and compliance by controlling and reducing the expenditure of gift-giving.However,on the one hand,the overall fact that men bear more spending on gift-giving may be due to the higher income level of them than women,or it may be due to the fact that they please their partners to gain higher relationship status by giving a gift.On the other hand,gender role norms as a part of cultural structure must be internalized into individual gender role concepts before they produce results in actions.Therefore,it is necessary to control the effects of income,relationship status and gender concept on the expenditure of gift-giving in intimate relationships before we can judge whether gender performance really exists.Therefore,under the power-relationship paradigm initiated by Bourdieu,this study attempts to build an explanatory framework of gift-giving in intimate relationships that includes gender cultural structure,relationship status and income,and conducts empirical analysis of the research questions by distributing self-designed questionnaires and using quantitative research methods.The research limited the survey objects to heterosexual couples among college students.After the questionnaire has passed the reliability and validity test on the pre-survey data,we selected five universities in Chengdu for the questionnaire by means of purposive sampling.A total of 182 valid samples were finally collected,including93 males and 89 females.Through correlation analysis,unary linear regression analysis and multiple regression analysis,the main conclusions are as follows:Firstly,the expenditure ratio of men on love gifts is significantly higher than that of women,and the economic burden caused by gift-giving between lovers is more imposed on men.Secondly,income and relationship status significantly affect the expenditure ratio of gift-giving in intimate relationships,but the ways of influence are different between the sexes.For men,the higher the disposable income,the higher the disposable income than their partner's,the higher the degree of dependence on the partner,and the lower the discourse power of intimate relationship,the higher the expenditure ratio on gift-giving.For women,the lower the disposable income and the higher their partner's emotional investment,the higher the expenditure ratio on gift-giving.Men may be more interested in giving gifts to gain discourse power in their relationship than breaking away from dependence.Women,on the other hand,interpret gift-giving more as a form of emotional expression,and the more emotionally invested their partner is in them,the more they will spend on gift-giving.Thirdly,gender performance exists in both male and female's gift-giving behavior,but the degree of gender performance is regulated by gender concept.Taking the initiative to bear all kinds of economic expenses in love,making money through hard work,and constantly increasing the economic investment in love gifts,is the way for men to implement gender performance;And try to control the spending of love gifts,to avoid putting pressure of higher income and high gift prices on their male partners,is the way for women to perform gender performance.Gender concept has a moderating effect on the gender performance of both sexes,that is,modern gender concept will weaken the promotion effect of the increase of disposable income on the increase of male's gift-giving expenditure ratio,and will weaken the inhibition effect of the increase of disposable income on the decrease of female's gift-giving expenditure ratio.That is to say,whether male or female,the more modern their gender concept is,the less they perform gender performance in gift-giving in their intimate relationships.Gender performance exists in all social actions of human beings,and the unequal gender order is reproduced in every aspect of daily life.Only when the modern gender concept is widely carried out can people be guided to fight reflexively.This suggests that we should attach importance to gender education and integrate gender equality consciousness and gender mainstreaming strategy into every link of social governance system,so as to lead to good governance through the hand in hand of men and women.