Children's expectations of sex differences in parents' responses to sons and daughters encountering interpersonal problems

The present study examined 8-12-year-old children's perceptions of parents' responses to sons and daughters experiencing interpersonal conflicts. In general, the children expected parents to respond in a manner consistent with traditional instrumental-expressive sex-role stereotypes. The implication of these findings for inadequacies in the socialization of interpersonal problem-solving styles in boys and girls is discussed.     

Parents think their sons are brighter than their daughters: sex differences in parental self-estimations and estimations of their children's multiple intelligences

In this study, 156 participants, predominantly White British adults (M age = 44.3 years) rated themselves on overall IQ and on H. Gardner's (1983) 7 intelligence subtypes. Parents (n = 120) also estimated the intelligence of their children. Men's self-estimates were significantly higher than women's (110.15 vs. 104.84). Participants thought their verbal, mathematical, and spatial intelligence scores were the best indicators of their own overall intelligence. Parents estimated that their sons had significantly higher IQs than their daughters (115.21 vs. 107.49). Self-estimates and estimates of children's multiple intelligences were higher for men and sons, significantly so for logical-mathematical and spatial intelligence. Parents rated 2nd-born daughters as having significantly higher verbal and musical intelligence than their male counterparts. Higher parental IQ self-estimates corresponded with higher IQ estimates for children. Results for 1st-born children were clearest and showed the most significant differences. The findings are interpreted in terms of sociocultural and familial influences and the possibility of actual sex differences in particular abilities.     

Mothers,fathers, sons,and daughters: Are there sex differences in the organization of secure base behavior during early childhood

Recent empirical studies reporting sex differences in attachment relationships have prompted investigators to consider why and under what conditions such results might be observed. This study was designed to explore possibilities of identifying sex differences in the organization of attachment-relevant behavior during early childhood. Observations of 119 children (59 boys) with their mothers and (separately) with their fathers were completed and children were described using the AQS. Results indicated that girls and boys did not differ with respect to global attachment security but at more specific level analyses revealed differences between parents that reflected differences in the behaviors of girls vs. boys with mothers and fathers. Our findings contradict arguments from evolutionary psychologists claiming that sex differences in attachment organization arise during middle childhood. By adopting an attachment measure sensitive to the possibility of behavioral sex differences our data suggest that such differences may be detectable earlier in development. Moreover, these differences are subtle and nuanced and do not suggest large sex differences in attachment security per se.     

The death of a parent: Its impact on middle-aged sons and daughters

Coming to terms with finitude is the central task of mid-life. The death of a parent of middle-aged sons and daughters intensifies that crisis in three ways: being without a parent is like being a middle-aged orphan; the death of one or both parents may finally make autonomy possible; when the last parent dies, death seems closer because the buffer is gone. Pastoral theological implications of this thesis are explored.     

Dominance and sex differences in nonverbal responses to differential eye contact

Sixteen male and 16 female subjects were divided into high- and low-dominant groups and assigned to one of two cohorts who either avoided eye contact or maintained a steady gaze. Starting 100 in. apart, subjects were asked to approach the cohort to the point where they felt most comfortable. Dependent measures were personal space, approach rate, reciprocal eye contact, and attitude toward cohort. It was found that high-dominant subjects showed increased proxemic behavior in responding to a direct gaze, while low-dominant subjects showed a decrease. Also men tend to use personal space and approach rate to signal dominance, while women use reciprocal eye contact. Finally, an exception was found to previous findings that positive attitudes are associated with high levels of eye contact. Low-dominant males, but no other groups, respond to direct gaze with a more negative attitude.     

An evolutionary psychology perspective on sex differences in exercise behaviors and motivations

Researchers have found that men and women pursue sex-appropriate strategies to attract mates. On the basis of intrasexual competition, men should be more likely to enact behaviors to look larger, whereas women should be more likely to enact behaviors to look smaller. The types of exercises that each performs should reflect this expectation. The present study replicates and extends work by L. Mealey (1997) on sex differences in exercise behavior. In the present study, male participants focused their energy on gaining muscle mass and enhancing their upper body definition, whereas female participants focused their energy on losing weight with emphasis on their lower body. Both sexes reported efforts to improve their abdominal region. It appears that men and women adopt sex-appropriate exercise behavior as a method of self-enhancement for intrasexual competition.     

Cardiovascular responses to open-field stress in rats: sex differences and effects of gonadal hormones

We studied sex differences in cardiovascular responses to stress using a new radio-telemetry model in which freely-moving Spontaneously Hypertensive rats (SHR) are exposed to open-field novelty stress. This model allowed simultaneous assessment of cardiovascular and behavioural responses to psychological stress. Female SHR in the diestrous stage of their estrous cycle had markedly greater pressor and tachycardic responses to open-field exposure when compared to either female rats not in diestrous or male SHR. Treatment of ovariectomized SHR with estrogen alone had no significant effect on cardiovascular reactivity, while a combined treatment of estrogen and progesterone slightly, but significantly attenuated their pressor response to open-field stress. In addition, treatment of castrated male rats with testosterone significantly enhanced their pressor responses to stress when compared to values obtained before treatment. None of the hormone treatments had any significant effect on heart rate responses to stress. Neither at different stages of the estrous cycle nor after hormone treatments were there any marked changes in behavioural responses in the open-field, making it unlikely that the differences in cardiovascular stress responses were caused by changes in behavioural activity. These data demonstrate differences in cardiovascular stress responses that seem to be dependent on the stage of the estrous cycle. They suggest that particularly androgens, such as testosterone, may enhance pressor responses to stress. On the other hand, a combination of estrogen and progesterone, rather than estrogen alone, may have a small attenuating effect on cardiovascular reactivity.     

Immune responses to lipopolysaccharide challenge in a tropical rodent (Funambulus pennanti): photoperiod entrainment and sex differences

Annual variation in day length (photoperiod) triggers changes in the immune system of seasonal breeders. The rationale behind this study was to delineate any sex differences in immune responses of photoperiodically entrained animals challenged against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory stress. We observed that photoperiodically entrained [short day, SD, 10?h light (L):14?h dark (D); long day, LD, 16?h L:8?h D; and natural day length, NDL, 12?h L:12?h D] male and female Indian palm squirrels, Funambulus pennanti, presented sexual dimorphism in immune status after LPS-induced stress. Females presented high humoral (anti-keyhole limpet hemocyanin immunoglobulin) and cellular immunity (lymphocyte proliferation) compared with the males of all photoperiodic conditions. Female squirrels showed reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine levels (interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α) than the males suggesting their high efficiency to recover from LPS-induced inflammatory stress. Increased duration of melatonin secretion and corticosterone concentration in squirrels experiencing SD evidently supported survival of squirrels as compared with control (NDL) and LD squirrels of both sexes. Decreased immune status in both sexes under LD condition might be due to a short melatonin signal mimicking the LDs of summer. Thus, we infer that photoperiodic entrainment via the levels of melatonin and corticosterone synergistically supported more the survival of female squirrels under LPS-induced stress.     

Motivational systems in adolescence: Possible implications for age differences in substance abuse and other risk-taking behaviors

Adolescence is an evolutionarily conserved developmental phase characterized by hormonal, physiological, neural and behavioral alterations evident widely across mammalian species. For instance, adolescent rats, like their human counterparts, exhibit elevations in peer-directed social interactions, risk-taking/novelty seeking and drug and alcohol use relative to adults, along with notable changes in motivational and reward-related brain regions. After reviewing these topics, the present paper discusses conditioned preference and aversion data showing adolescents to be more sensitive than adults to positive rewarding properties of various drugs and natural stimuli, while less sensitive to the aversive properties of these stimuli. Additional experiments designed to parse specific components of reward-related processing using natural rewards have yielded more mixed findings, with reports of accentuated positive hedonic sensitivity during adolescence contrasting with studies showing less positive hedonic affect and reduced incentive salience at this age. Implications of these findings for adolescent substance abuse will be discussed.     

Resolving contradictory findings on sex and social class differences in children's responses to reinforcement

Contradictory results have been reported on the effectiveness of various reinforcers with children of different ages and socioeconomic classes. The present study considered the relative effectiveness of two types of verbal and one type of tangible reinforcement on a two-choice discrimination task (marble-in-the-hole) for preschool children. IQ and operant level were treated as covariates and accounted for the observed differences in performance between the 24 middle-class and 24 lower-class children and between the 24 males and 24 females. Disparate findings of previous studies regarding sex and social class differences might have been reconciled if baseline and IQ had been considered.     

Community responses to a suicidal crisis: implications for suicide prevention

We conducted a cross‐sectional, random‐digit‐dial survey to evaluate public responses to a hypothetical question: “If someone you knew was suicidal, what would you do first?” Younger people were more likely to call a suicide hotline, and less likely to go to an emergency room (ER) or call 911; immigrants (in the U.S. <15 years) were more likely to call 911, and less likely to call a suicide hotline; African Americans were more likely to go to the ER and call 911; Hispanics were more likely to call 911 but less likely to call a suicide hotline. These results suggest that public messages about hotlines and emergency options for suicidal patients need to be tailored to relevant population characteristics including age, education, ethnicity, and language preferences.     

Caring for infant daughters and sons in dual‐earner households: maternal reports of father involvement in weekday time and tasks

This study focused on maternal reports of gender differences in weekday father involvement with 12‐month‐olds in 47 dual‐earner households utilizing full time infant day care. Three involvement variables were considered: father's time alone with the infant; father's time available to the infant; and father participation in caregiving tasks. The results showed fathers to be available to sons significantly more than daughters. Fathers were also significantly more involved in caregiving tasks with sons than with daughters. There was no difference in father time alone with sons and daughters. Examination of these three involvement measures in relation to demographic, family environment, and infant temperament measures revealed that mothers' reported fathers as being available more to sons than to daughters. In addition, mothers reported fathers to be more available to temperamentally easy sons than to temperamentally difficult sons. Recommendations are made for future research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Equal performance but distinct behaviors: sex differences in a novel object recognition task and spatial maze in a highly social cichlid fish

Animal Cognition - Sex differences in behavior and cognition can be driven by differential selection pressures from the environment and in the underlying neuromolecular mechanisms of...     

Mothers' adjustment to the birth of a second child: a longitudinal study on use of verbal and nonverbal behaviors toward two children

4 mothers' skillful use of verbal and nonverbal behaviors to their first and second children was examined while each mother was playing with them for about one year after the birth of the second child. Analysis showed that maternal verbal interactions with the firstborn were frequently accompanied by nonverbal interactions toward the secondborn, especially during the first few months postpartum. The concurrent use of verbal and nonverbal behaviors with the two children may be a behavioral strategy for the mother to adjust to the birth of the second child.     

Stereotypes and steroids: using a psychobiosocial model to understand cognitive sex differences

To further our understanding of cognitive sex differences, we studied the relationship between menstrual phase (via serum estradiol and progesterone levels) and cognitive abilities and cognitive performance in a sample of medical students in eastern Turkey. As expected, we found no sex differences on the Cattell "Culture Fair Intelligence Test" (a figural reasoning test), with females scoring significantly higher on a Turkish version of the Finding A's Test (rapid word knowledge) and males scoring significantly higher on a paper-and-pencil mental rotation test. The women showed a slight enhancement on the Finding A's Test and a slight decrement in Cattell scores during the preovulatory phase of their cycle that (probably) coincided with a rise in estrogen. There were also small cycle-related enhancements in performance for these women on the mental rotation test that may reflect cyclical increases in estrogen and progesterone. Additional analyses showed an inverted U-shaped function in level of estradiol and the Cattell Test. Finally, for women who were tested on Day 10 of their menstrual cycle, there was a negative linear relationship between their Cattell scores and level of progesterone. Stereotypes about the cognitive abilities of males and females did not correspond to performance on the mental rotation or Finding A's Test, so the sex-typical results could not be attributed to either stereotype threat or stereotype activation. For practical purposes, hormone-related effects were generally small. Variations over the menstrual cycle do not provide evidence for a "smarter" sex, but they do further our understanding of steroidal action on human cognitive performance.     

Electrodermal orienting responses to verbal and geometrical visual stimuli projected to the left or right retinal half-fields: sex differences

Using the visual half-field technique, verbal and geometrical slides were repeatedly projected to either the left or right visual field in an electrodermal orienting paradigm. Bilateral skin conductance response-magnitudes were recorded continuously over trials. Half the subjects (8 males and 8 females) had a verbal and a geometrical slide repeatedly presented to the right of a central fixation-point, (i.e. initial left hemisphere input) and the other half had the same kinds of stimuli presented to the left (i.e. initial right hemisphere input). There were 32 presentations of each stimulus, i.e. a total of 64 trials. The intertrial interval (ITI) varied between 25 to 40 sec. Results showed significantly larger response-magnitudes in the female group having the stimuli presented in the left visual field and especially to the geometrical slide. The same trend in data was also found for the male subgroup having the stimuli presented in the left visual field. No significant differences between the bilateral left and right hand recordings were foundin the main analysis. However, a closer inspection of the data indicated the left hand recording to be more sensitive than the right hand recording.