Supply and demand in early childhood services

Two surveys—a mail survey of a stratified random sample of 387 agencies providing early childhood services and a telephone random digit dialing (RDD) survey of 988 parents of children ages newborn through 8 years in Pennsylvania—addressed the question of supply and demand for early childhood services. Over all forms and circumstances, the supply of early childhood services appears to meet the demand, but the data indicates that existing services do not meet the needs of many parents with respect to the quality, convenience, stability, and cost of such services. Specifically, agency estimates suggested that enrollments approached capacity for full-day and preschool services but not other types. It was estimated that approximately one fourth of all nonemployed mothers and one half of low-income nonemployed mothers said the supply of affordable services was inadequate and a barrier to seeking employment, education, or job training. Three out of four (76.1%) infants (birth to 2 years) and one out of three (35.2%) young children (3–5 years) in services were in unlicensed settings, whereas 4.8% of infants and 7.4% of 3- to 5-year-olds in services were cared for by an older child. One in five parents who used any non-parental service regularly used more than one service to meet their needs. Low-income parents who must work full time had limited access to educational preschool services because most preschools operated only half-day programs. Six percent of all parents using services and 12.5% of users of more than one service said transportation was a problem, and 21.2% of the parents of infants and 8.8% of the parents of 3- to 5-year-olds changed their main service within the last year, mainly because the service terminated or because the parents wanted better quality, convenience, or lower cost.     

DERIVED IDENTITY AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY IN WOMEN DIFFERING IN MARITAL AND EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Derived identity, defined as a sense of self that is overly influenced by and dependent upon relationships with significant others, and depressive symptomatology, measured by the CES-D scale, were assessed in a sample of 564 adult women classified into one of six marital-employment status groups: married professional, single professional, married nonprofessional, single nonprofessional, married nonemployed, and single nonemployed. Married women were found to report more derived identity than single women and when age effects were controlled, married women also had higher CES-D scores than single women. Employment status results in aggregate indicated that for women of equal education: (1) employment outside the home, whether it be professional or non-professional, is related to a more autonomous sense of self than nonemployment and (2) employment outside the home is not associated with lower CES-D scores than nonemployment. Derived identity and depression were also found to be significantly correlated within the total sample and within each marital-employment status group.     

Violence against women: Mental health effects. Part II. Conceptualizations of posttraumatic stress

A broad range of psychological aftereffects have been noted among women who have experienced male-perpetrated violence. These symptoms vary considerably among individuals, across social contexts, and across different types of violent encounters (Coley & Beckett, 1988; Goodman, Koss, & Russo, 1992; Koss, 1988; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Nevertheless, a remarkably consistent picture of the psychological sequelae of violence—particularly sexual and physical assault—emerges from the empirical and clinical literature (Koss, 1988). In this article, we use the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis—a frame that captures many of the disparate symptoms described by researchers—as a basis for exploring several conceptual models that have been developed to explain women's responses to violence.     

Are Religious Women More Likely to Have Breast Cancer Screening?

The study objective was to investigate whether women who frequently attend religious services are more likely to have breast cancer screening—mammography and clinical breast examinations—than other women. Multivariate logistic regression models show that white women who attended religious services frequently had more than twice the odds of breast cancer screening than white women who attended less frequently (Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.61; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.12, 6.06). The behavior of white women was different from African American women (religious attendance-race interaction term p-value = 0.008); African American women who attended religious services frequently were possibly less likely to have breast cancer screening (OR 0.49; CI = 0.19–1.31).     

Deconstructing Differentiation: Self Regulation, Interdependent Relating, and Well-Being in Adulthood

This study examined underlying similarities between the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS; Bray, Williamson, & Malone, 1984a) and the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). Generalized least-squares factor analysis yielded two related factors, Self Regulation and Interdependent Relating, accounting for 60% of the variance in the solution. Greater Self Regulation—comprised of DSI scales characterized by less emotional reactivity and the ability to take an I position in relationships—and Interdependent Relating—marked by greater personal authority, intergenerational intimacy and less intergenerational fusion on the PAFS and less emotional cutoff on the DSI—predicted well-being among both women and men. Implications for family therapy and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Sources of organizational power for women: Overcoming structural obstacles

The ability of women (and men) to achieve success within organizational settings depends on their understanding structural and behavioral dimensions of power. However, the increased emphasis on educating women in the behavioral methods (e.g., assertiveness, aspirations, politics) of acquiring power invariably minimizes or omits the potential contribution of structural considerations. In their journey toward power acquisition, women must recognize and utilize the wide array of structural paths available to them. An analysis is undertaken of the main structural (organizational) sources of power — centrality, coping with uncertainty, and control over resources — with emphasis on their ramifications for women.The research cited in this article includes empirically based studies as well as observations, assertions, or admonitions that have not received extensive empirical validation. Nonetheless, the latter personal experiences and observations of these authorities may be valid.Management Analysis Company     

Careers,contingencies, and locus of control among White college women

This study examined social-psychological antecedents of the sex type of occupational preferences and expectations of White college women. High sex-role contingency orientation (SRCO)—attitudes and explanations for occupational choices which reflect a primary and explicit concern with marriage and family—was associated with expectations and preferences for occupations in which females predominate and with the tendency to have more traditionally feminine expectations than preferences.SRCO was significantly related to locus of control (I-E) with women high or intermediate in SRCO being primarily internal or external; women with low SRCO being primarily intermediate in I-E.This study was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from the Graduate Research Council of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.     

Sociodemographic characteristics and drinking status as predictors of older women's health.

As part of a U.S. national survey of women's drinking and life experiences, the authors used responses from a subsample (n = 245) of women aged 55-90 years (M = 65.8 years) to examine the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics (income, marital status, and occupational status) and drinking status to several health outcomes (self-perceived general health, depression, sexual satisfaction, and sexual dysfunction). In all analyses, the authors controlled for respondent age. Results indicated that higher household income predicted greater lifetime and current sexual satisfaction with a partner as well as higher general health ratings. Women drinkers also reported better general health than did abstainers. An interaction between marital status (married or cohabitating vs. nonmarried) and employment status (employed vs. nonemployed) was a predictor of general health ratings. The authors found significant contrasts among the 4 groups when they controlled for age, income, and drinking status: (a) Among the employed respondents, the nonmarried women reported better general health than did the married women; and (b) among nonmarried respondents, the employed women reported better general health than did the nonemployed women.     

Employment Status and Sex Role Attitudes in Middle-class Suburban Mothers

Twenty-one employed and 31 nonemployed suburban mothers of 2nd and 6th grade children were administered the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), Welledey Role Orientation Scale (WROS), and items from the Traditional Family Inventory (TFI items). Employed mothers agreed with more nontraditional attitudes on the WROS and described themselves in more masculine or androgynous terms than did nonempldyed mothers. These differences were not affected by grade or sex of child. While the directionality of effect could not be established, it was clear that these employed women viewed themselves and their roles as wives and mothers differently than did their nonemployed counterparts. This was true despite differences in conditions of employment, and despite a more traditional overall attitude among these women than has been reported in studies using younger, upper middle-class university women. In this study, mothers employed part time were more traditional in their responses to TFI items concerned with child rearing attitudes than were mothers employed full time. Again, while directionality of effect could not be established, the decision to work part time and thus spend more time with the children is compatible with a more traditional attitude. The usefulness of these easily administered measures in dividing groups of women for further research on sex roles outside university communities is apparent.     

Social likeability,conformity, and body talk: Does fat talk have a normative rival in female body image conversations?

Fat talk, dialogues among women involving negative body-focused discussions, was studied as a function of conformity and social likeability through the use of four vignettes depicting young women in conversation. Using a 2 (body presentation style of the group: negative or positive) × 2 (body presentation style of the target, Jenny: negative or positive) factorial design, 215 college women (92.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) read one of four vignettes in a classroom setting and made ratings on a social likeability scale. Participants’ personal ratings of Jenny's likeability were higher when she spoke positively about her body, whereas they expected the other group members in the vignette to like Jenny more when she conformed to the group's body presentation style. This study is the first to support two competing norms for women's body image—the existing norm to fat talk versus a newly documented norm that some women like others who express body acceptance.     

Tomboyism or Lesbianism? Beyond Sex/Gender/Sexual Conflation

To illuminate questions of sex/gender/sexual conflation the researcher focused on the relationship between reported tomboyism and lesbianism. Narratives of childhood and adolescence were collected from 32 women who were grouped into four gender/sexual status combinations: “lesbian/bisexual butch,” “straight butch,” “lesbian/bisexual femme,” and “straight femme.” The effects of participants’ sexual and gendered statuses on their retrospective accounts of two aspects of tomboyism—“choosing masculinity” and “rejecting femininity”—were examined. Chi square and qualitative analyses suggest that stage in the life cycle, gender, and sexual status influence distinct mergings and separations of sex, gender, and sexuality in women’s retrospective reports. The researcher concludes that attention to sex, gender, and sexuality as both distinct and connected clarifies the relationship between tomboyism and lesbianism.Part of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003. Interview data for this study were originally collected for an unpublished dissertation (Carr, 2002).     

Attachment orientations, marriage, and the transition to parenthood

This study examined how a major life stressor—the transition to parenthood—impacts marital satisfaction and functioning in persons with different romantic attachment orientations. As hypothesized, if highly ambivalent women entered the transition perceiving low levels of spousal support, they experienced significant declines (pre-to-postnatal changes) in perceptions of spousal support and marital satisfaction, and their husbands reported significant declines in support giving and marital satisfaction. Changes in both spouses’ satisfaction were mediated by pre-to-postnatal changes in wives’ perceptions of spousal support. That is, highly ambivalent women who perceived less prenatal support reported significant declines in perceived support over time, which in turn predicted significant declines in their marital satisfaction. These results highlight the critical role that perceptions of support assume when highly ambivalent women encounter a major life stressor.     

Role perceptions: Variations by sex and roles

A Role Perception Scale utilizing a combined projective-objective methodology was developed to assess female and male perceptions of each of three single roles — work, marriage, and parent — and two combined roles — work-marriage and work-parent. Research participants were 134 college students, 88 females and 46 males. Factor analysis of the objective scale, the only part to be scored, resulted in two major orthogonal factors labeled role engagement and competition factors. Sex and role differences for each factor were analyzed using 2×5 split block analysis of variance design with repeated measures. On three out of the five single and combined roles women perceived more engagement than men. In general males perceived roles as more competitive. These sex differences and patterns identified in within-sex analyses across roles are discussed.Parts of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, D.C., September 1976. Research was supported in part by the Dean's Development Fund, New York University, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions. Both authors are senior authors. The order of names is randomly determined. The authors wish to thank Philip Merrifield and Barbara Hummel-Rossi for their statistical assistance in data analysis.     

GENDER, JOB AND FAMILY CONDITIONS, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

This study examined the hypothesis that gender differences in psycho-logical distress are mediated by job and family role conditions. Previous research has failed to directly test such mediational hypotheses but rather has inferred effects of role conditions from simple role-occupancy variables. The sample consisted of full-time employed married respondents including 161 women with full-time employed spouses, 142 men with nonemployed spouses, and 126 men with full-time employed spouses. Although the sample reported low psychological symptomatology overall, the women in dual-earner families reported more psychological symptomatology than did either group of men. Hierarchical regression equations indicated that work and family conditions fully attenuated this gender differential. Women in dual-earner families also reported less job enrichment, less time at work, and more household labor inequity than did either group of men. They also reported more childcare difficulty than did men with nonemployed spouses. Work-family interference predicted psychological symptomatology and partially accounted for its relationship with some job and family conditions. We discuss processes through which gender affects psychological distress.     

The relationship of sex-role orientation to heterosexuals' attitudes toward homosexuals

It has been proposed that heterosexuals' negative attitudes toward homosexuals derives in part from perceptions that homosexuality threatens society's traditional sex role structure. This explanation suggests that persons who are more traditional in their sex role characteristics will hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuals. This hypothesis was tested using three aspects of sex role — sex role beliefs, sex role self-concept, and sex role behavior pattern — and four measures of attitudes toward homosexuals — attitudes toward male homosexuals, attitudes toward female homosexuals, personal responses to homosexual advances and feelings, and attitudes toward the social role of homosexuals. In general, for both female and male respondents, less negative attitudes were related to being older, being less conservative, and holding less traditional sex role beliefs. In addition, for women, less negativie attitudes were also associated with a more stereotypically masculine behavior pattern. The conceptual and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.I would like to thank Michael R. Stevenson for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.     

Vocational choice and values in adolescent women

The study investigated the relationship of values, internal-external locus of control, and two career maturity variables — career planning orientation and knowledge and use of resources for planning — and the occupational aspiration of 590 adolescent women. Significant value differences were found among females who chose innovative, moderately innovative, or traditional occupations for women. The values clean, forgiving, and helpful were ranked as more important by females aspiring to traditional occupations, while the values courageous, imaginative, and independent were ranked as more important by women aspiring to innovative occupations. No significant differences were found among the three groups on locus of control and career planning orientation. The mean of knowledge and use of resources for planning was found to be significantly higher for the moderately innovative group than the traditional group. The findings of this study are used to propose the utility of values as a representation of sex-role beliefs and the use of values in self-confrontation procedures to change occupational aspirations.The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of Milton Rokeach and Robert Tolsma on an earlier draft of this article.     

Male sex roles and epithets for ethnic women in American slang

The historical inventory of derogatory names for women of ethnic outgroups displays, in intensified form, the strains of traditional male sex roles—and subsequent aggression—both in ethnic and gender relations. Epithets for ethnic women derogate both sex and ethnic roles. The words are aimed disproportionately at women of racial minorities; stereotype physical differences between ethnic groups; and make derogatory sexual allusions, often using food and animal metaphors.     

Anger and denial as predictors of cardiovascular reactivity in women

The relationship between behavioral and physiological reactivity and cardiovascular disease has been extensively researched in men, indicating that the expression of anger may be a contributory factor in the development of coronary heart disease. Few studies, however, have focused on women. Among these, women generally have been found to be less reactive to laboratory tasks than men. In the present study, 45 women aged 19–21 years were selected to represent three groups—(1) low anger/low denial, (2) high anger/low denial, and (3) low anger/high denial—based on their scores on the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Subjects received three conditions: (1) no feedback, (2) error feedback without observer present, and (3) error feedback with observer present. As hypothesized, women who reported a high level of denial and low anger exhibited elevated stress-related reactivity. The results are suggestive of a subgroup of highly reactive women not previously identified within the literature. The hypothesis that all groups would display greater reactivity in a condition providing error feedback with observation was not supported.This study was supported by a research grant to Carol S. Emerson from the Women's Research Institute of Virginia.     

Assessing perceptions of occupational-family integration

Consideration of how to integrate occupational and family roles is crucial to the psychological development of adolescents and young adults today. This paper reports on a self-report instrument designed to assess perceptions of involvement in occupational and family roles in young women and men. The Orientations to Occupational-Family Integration consists of three separate scales that reflect three types of orientation—(1) male traditional, (2) female traditional, and (3) male and female atraditional. Reliability and validity data are reported from two studies, one with 81 adolescent girls and one with 122 college women and men. Uses of the measure for research and educational purposes are described briefly.Appreciation is expressed to Sue Lucas and Darryl Lewis for their assistance in data collection for Study I, and to the University Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin for grant awards for each of the two studies. The order of the third and fourth authors is alphabetical. L. Suzanne Dancer is now at the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee.     

Multiple Roles and Well-Being: A Study of Mothers of Preschool Age Children

The relation of well-being to involvement in multiple roles was examined in a study of 134 Caucasian women. All subjects were married and mothers of at least one preschool child; 50 were also paid workers. Two indices of well-being were used: (a) self-esteem; and (b) satisfaction with one's current role pattern. No differences in level of well-being were found between the employed and nonemployed groups. Findings were discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives on multiple role involvement.