Cinderella Syndrome "Women with Fear of Independence": Developing a Scale

Abstract

Cinderella syndrome is a concept which is used to define woman who fear from being independent. Women with Cinderella syndrome are in the need of men’s refuge and protection. The syndrome is like a psychological dependence for women and in this dependence, situation being patient and moral is important for being rescued by a man as a reward. In the syndrome women expect a man to come and take control of their own lives so that they can live happily. The aim of the study developing a scale into Turkish culture to determine the level of Cinderella Syndrome in females. The Cinderella Syndrome Scale is a 5-point Likert Type scale which includes 25 items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to define construct validity and three factors were determined, called “sexist attitude”, “escape from responsibility” and “quitting career”. According to EFA, three factors describe 54,69 % of the variance. Results of EFA were validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The Cronbach’s alpha was found as .94 for the total scale.

Keywords

• Cinderella syndrome,
• woman,
• man,
• gender,
• dependence

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