BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES ABOUT SEXUAL AGGRESSION

This study investigated the correspondence between parents' and daughters' beliefs about sexual aggression and gender roles. The relationship between a woman's attitudes and her personal experiences with sexual victimization was also examined. The participants were 236 female undergraduates, 148 mothers, and 110 fathers. One hundred-three matching triads were collected. Participants evaluated victim responsibility for written scenarios depicting a date-rape victim. Information about gender-role attitudes, perceived family communication, and previous sexual experiences was also collected. Results indicated that daughter–mother, daughter–father, and mother–father dyads shared attitudes about gender roles and beliefs about victim responsibility. Parental attitudes also predicted daughters' attitudes, but family communication did not moderate the relationship between parental attitudes and daughters' attitudes. Mothers' and daughters' experiences of coerced sex were not associated. A relationship between attitudes and beliefs and experiences of coerced sex emerged only for mothers. Mothers with a history of coerced sex adhered to more traditional gender-role attitudes and assigned more responsibility to the date-rape victim. The need for further research in the area of familial attitudes about rape is discussed.     

Think Women, Think Warm: Stereotype Content Activation in Women with a Salient Gender Identity, Using a Modified Stroop Task

We examined whether a salient gender identity activates gender stereotypes along the dimensions of sociability and ability (Fiske et al. 2002). A sample of US undergraduates (40 men, 38 women) instructed to think about women subsequently took longer to name the colors of words associated with sociability than ability on a modified Stroop task. Solo women in another sample of US undergraduates (45 women) showed the same response pattern. Women in a third sample of US adults (20 men, 16 women) showed a similar pattern. Meta-analysis of the three samples suggests women with a salient gender identity experience relative activation of only the positive dimension of a stereotype (e.g. “woman” equals warm).     

SEX DIFFERENCES IN OCCUPATIONAL PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS

This study is an investigation of the effects of occupational sex-dominance on sex differences in occupational performance expectations. Female and male college students indicated their expectations for their own performance— self expectations—and that of either a typical male, female, or male and female person— comparison person expectations —for six occupations varying according to perceived sex-dominance. Additionally, the performance expectations were reported under anticipated private or public conditions. Results indicated that in contrast to males, females reported lower expectations for themselves alone and lower expectations for themselves in comparison to another person for male-dominated occupations. However, unlike males, females reported higher expectations for themselves and for themselves in comparison to others for female-dominated fields. Occupational sex dominance appeared to influence females' performance expectations, while males' expectations were similar across fields varying in sex-dominance. Neither the sex of the comparison person nor the anticipated privacy of the expectations were found to be related to the sex differences in performance expectations.     

Social influences on smoking in middle-aged and older women

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of 2 types of social influence--general social support and living with a smoker--on smoking behavior among middle-aged and older women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study. Participants were postmenopausal women who reported smoking at some time in their lives (N=37,027), who were an average age of 63.3 years at baseline. Analyses used multiple logistic regression and controlled for age, educational level, and ethnicity. In cross-sectional analyses, social support was associated with a lower likelihood and living with a smoker was associated with a higher likelihood of being a current smoker and, among smokers, of being a heavier smoker. Moreover, in prospective analyses among baseline smokers, social support predicted a higher likelihood and living with a smoker predicted a lower likelihood of smoking cessation 1-year later. Further, in prospective analyses among former smokers who were not smoking at baseline, social support predicted a lower likelihood and living with a smoker predicted a higher likelihood of smoking relapse 1-year later. Overall, the present results indicate that social influences are important correlates of smoking status, smoking level, smoking cessation, and smoking relapse among middle-aged and older women.     

Helping parents to motivate adolescents in mathematics and science: an experimental test of a utility-value intervention

The pipeline toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins to leak in high school, when some students choose not to take advanced mathematics and science courses. We conducted a field experiment testing whether a theory-based intervention that was designed to help parents convey the importance of mathematics and science courses to their high school-aged children would lead them to take more mathematics and science courses in high school. The three-part intervention consisted of two brochures mailed to parents and a Web site, all highlighting the usefulness of STEM courses. This relatively simple intervention led students whose parents were in the experimental group to take, on average, nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last 2 years of high school, compared with the control group. Parents are an untapped resource for increasing STEM motivation in adolescents, and the results demonstrate that motivational theory can be applied to this important pipeline problem.