Gender differences in sport involvement: Applying the eccles' expectancy-value model

Abstract

With the growth of the field of sport psychology has come a growing interest and concern over gender differences in achievement and participation in various sports. Why do girls and boys differ from one another in their participation rates and participation patterns in sports? Over the past 10 years, Eccles and her colleagues have put together a theoretical model for analyzing the motivational factors underlying individuals' decisions regarding achievement-related choices. This paper describes this theoretical model and uses data from two studies, one focusing on adolescents, and one focusing on elementary school-aged children, to evaluate the utility of this model for understanding gender differences in sport participation. It reaches the following conclusions: (a) the Eccles et al. model holds for sport as well as, if not better than, it does for academic subjects; (b) gender differences in children's attitudes toward sport are quite strong and emerge at a very young age; and (c) these gender differences seem to be a consequence more of gender-role socialization than of “natural” aptitudinal differences.     

Engaging the Student Voice in Dialogue with Section 50 Inspection Criteria in Church in Wales Primary Schools: A Study in Psychometric Assessment

The inspection criteria for schools with a religious character within the state-maintained system in England and Wales require the sponsoring body to report on aspects of the distinctiveness of the school ethos and on school worship. This article argues that taking into account the student voice in these areas could enhance the inspection process. Findings are reported for a pilot study conducted among 1,899 students between ages 9 and 11 years, attending year-five and -six classes within Church in Wales primary schools. On the basis of this pilot study, six short scales were constructed to assess student attitude toward: school ethos, school experience, school teachers, relationships in school, school environment, and school worship. The data reported satisfactory internal consistency reliability for each of the six scales. The scales are recommended for further application.     

Long‐Term Effects of Social Investment: The Case of Partnering in Young Adulthood

ABSTRACT On the basis of the assumptions of the dynamic transactional paradigm, the current study investigates the effects of success and failure of social investment on personality development across young adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Adult Life Transitions (MSALT), the authors demonstrate that entering into the first long‐term romantic relationship was accompanied by decreases in facets of neuroticism, thereby fully replicating findings by Neyer and Lehnart (2007) based on a German longitudinal study. In addition, remaining single over 8 years was related to decreasing self‐esteem, especially for men. These results demonstrate long‐term effects of investment and lack of investment in social roles and provide further evidence of the interrelatedness of social or relationship experiences and personality development.     

Career Development From Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood Insights From Information Technology Occupations

Career development theories suggest that social-contextual experiences are influential in individuals' career interests, aspirations, and skill development and may be a source of gender and ethnic differences in certain career fields. In this mixed methods study, we examine the supportive and obstructive career-related experiences of 13 men and 13 women (modal age 25). Interviews focused primarily on the pathway toward or away from an information technology (IT) career. Thematic coding indicated that parents were mostly supportive, while experiences in school and work occasionally made individuals reconsider their career plans. Social influences often changed developmentally as participants entered full-time jobs. Gendered participation in IT was often attributed to women's perception that it is a male-oriented field.     

Are adolescents the victims of raging hormones: evidence for activational effects of hormones on moods and behavior at adolescence.

The literatures on hormone changes at adolescence, hormonal influences on moods and behavior in nonhuman animals and adult humans, and mood and behavioral changes at adolescence and the small but burgeoning literature on hormonal influences at adolescence are examined. The focus is on moods and behaviors often identified as typically adolescent (e.g., mood lability, mood intensity, irritability, conflict with parents) and the primary hormones of puberty (i.e., the adrenal androgens, gonadotropins, and sex steroids). Through an integration of these literatures evidence is assessed for specific hormone-mood and hormone-behavior associations, as well as for more general types of hormone-outcome relations that transcend specific hormones or outcomes. Non-biological factors that appear to be important in moderating the role of hormones in adolescent moods and behavior are identified. Implications for the design of future studies in this area are detailed.     

Parent perceptions and attributions for children's math achievement

From junior high school on, girls report lower estimations of their math ability and express more negative attitudes about math than do boys, despite equivalent performance in grades. Parents show this same sex-typed bias. This paper examines the role that attributions may play in explaining these sex differences in parents' perceptions of their children's math ability. Mothers and fathers of 48 junior high school boys and girls of high, average, and low math ability completed questionnaires about their perceptions of their child's ability and effort in math, and their causal attributions for their child's successful and unsuccessful math performances. Parents' math-related perceptions and attributions varied with their child's level of math ability and gender. Parents credited daughters with more effort than sons, and sons with more talent than daughters for successful math performances. These attributional patterns predicted sex-linked variations in parents' ratings of their child's effort and talent. No sex of child effects emerged for failure attributions; instead, lack of effort was seen as the most important, and lack of ability as the least important, cause of unsuccessful math performances for both boys and girls. Implications of these attributions for parents' influence on children's developing self-concept of math ability, future expectancies, and subsequent achievement behaviors are discussed.This paper is based on a master's thesis by the first author. This research was funded by grants to Jacquelynne S. Eccles from the following agencies: the Foundation for Child Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Child Health and Development.We wish to express our thanks to Linda Buford, Sandra Hamman, and Samuel D. Miller, who helped collect and code these data, and especially to the parents, students, and teachers in the Ann Arbor Public School district, whose cooperation made this project possible.     

POOL HALLS, CHIPS, AND WAR GAMES: WOMEN IN THE CULTURE OF COMPUTING

Computers are becoming ubiquitous in our society and they offer superb opportunities for people in jobs and everyday life. But there is a noticeable sex difference in use of computers among children. This article asks why computers are more attractive to boys than to girls and offers a cultural framework for explaining the apparent sex differences. Although the data are fragmentary, the world of computing seems to be more consistent with male adolescent culture than with feminine values and goals. Furthermore, both arcade and educational software is designed with boys in mind. These observations lead us to speculate that computing is neither inherently difficult nor uninteresting to girls, but rather that computer games and other software might have to be designed differently for girls. Programs to help teachers instill computer efficacy in all children also need to be developed.     

The ontogeny of career identities in adolescence

Exploration and identity formation are primary developmental tasks during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Yet little is known about occupational identity formation and growth during this period of life. In this chapter, the authors describe their ongoing research on this topic. First, they present their findings on the ontogeny of the complexity of career identities. Then they discuss their findings regarding the relationship between early career identity formation and psychological well-being at ages nineteen and twenty-one.