Sex differences in realization of individual potential for achievement

Data from 4035 participants in Project TALENT were analyzed to examine the extent to which known sex differences in achievement held up when early potential for achievement was contolled. Original TALENT data, consisting of information on socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, and educational and occupational aspirations, were collected in 1960 when members of the study sample were in Grade 9. Follow-up surveys measuring participants' educational and occupational attainment were conducted at 1, 5, and 11 years after the date of participants' expected graduation from high school. Women had higher high school grades and scored higher on a composite of academic ability tests taken in Grade 9 than did men. However, by 11 years after high school, men had acquired more education and were earning more money on the job. Sex differences in realization of achievement potential were found across all socioeconomic levels. At least part of the reason behind women's relative failure to translate potential into achievement may lie in the greater conflict, for women, between the roles of spouse/parent and the roles of student/worker: variables measuring the onset, duration, and extent of family-related commitments were more strongly related to female than to male realization of potential. Sex differences in achievement grew larger between the 5- and 11-year follow-ups as a greater proportion of women in the study sample became wives and mothers. The widening of the sex gap in achievement during this period was particularly pronounced among the subgroup of individuals who were in the top quartile of potential in Grade 9.     

Nontraditional careers for women: A prototypical example

A nationwide survey of a stratified sample of 461 Army ROTC college cadets and 470 of their non-ROTC schoolmates was conducted in order to investigate sex and racial differences in military-related perceptions and attitudes. This article focuses on survey findings dealing with sex differences in respondents' military socialization, knowledge of ROTC and the Army, attitudes toward ROTC and the Army, and behavioral intentions with respect to a military career. Female cadets had (1) fewer military socializing influences, (2) less accurate knowledge about ROTC and the Army, (3) more favorable attitudes toward ROTC and the Army, and (4) less favorable intentions regarding military service than male cadets. Findings 2, 3, and 4 were also obtained in the noncadet schoolmate group; however, in this group, there were no significant sex differences in military socializing influences. A model based on these findings is developed as a starting point for attempts to account for the higher attrition rates of women in the military.     

Competition between antecedent and between subsequent stimuli in causal judgments

In the analysis of stimulus competition in causal judgment, 4 variables have been frequently confounded with respect to the conditions necessary for stimuli to compete: causal status of the competing stimuli (causes vs. effects), temporal order of the competing stimuli (antecedent vs. subsequent) relative to the noncompeting stimulus, directionality of training (predictive vs. diagnostic), and directionality of testing (predictive vs. diagnostic). In a factorial study using an overshadowing preparation, the authors isolated the role of each of these variables and their interactions. The results indicate that competition may be obtained in all conditions. Although some of the results are compatible with various theories of learning, the observation of stimulus competition in all conditions calls for a less restrictive reformulation of current learning theories that allows similar processing of antecedent and subsequent events, as well as of causes and effects.     

Are UN Peacekeepers at Risk for Suicide?

Media reports connecting UN peacekeeping duties by Canadian soldiers to their subsequent suicide prompted this study of peacekeeping as suicide risk. In a case-control design we retrospectively compared 66 suicides in the Canadian military between 1990 and 1995 with two control groups: (a) 2,601 controls randomly selected from the electronic military database and (b) 66 matched controls with complete personnel and medical data. We found no increased risk of suicide in peacekeepers except among a subgroup of air force personnel. Here confounding individual factors, isolation from supports, and possibly inadequate preparation for deployment elucidated their suicides. Theater of deployment (e.g., Bosnia) did not affect the suicide rate. Military suicides experienced psychosocial stresses and psychiatric illness more often than their matched controls. We conclude that although peacekeeping per se does not increase overall suicide risk, military life-styles may strain interpersonal relationships, encourage alcohol abuse, and contribute to psychiatric illness and suicide in a minority of vulnerable individuals irrespective of peacekeeping assignment. Careful selection, and preparatory military training that encourages intragroup bonding and mutual support, may protect against suicide risk.     

Cues trained apart compete for behavioral control in rats: convergence with the associative interference literature

Contemporary theories of associative learning require cues be trained in compound for cue competition (interference) to occur. That is, Cues A and X should compete for behavioral control only if training consists of AX-outcome (O) trials and not if each cue is separately paired with O (i.e., X-O and A-O). Research with humans challenges this view by showing that A-O trials interpolated between training and testing of a X-O association impair responding to X (i.e., retroactive interference). In six conditioned suppression studies with rats, the authors demonstrate that two cues trained apart can each interfere with the potential of the other to predict the outcome. The authors conclude that this type of interference (a) reflects a failure to retrieve the target association due to priming at test of the interfering association and (b) is attenuated if the outcome is of high biological significance. These findings parallel previous reports in verbal learning research and suggest that a similar associative structure underlies some types of associations in nonverbal subjects.     

Adolescent substance use disorders: findings from a 14-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children.

Intervening on the development of adolescent addiction requires an understanding of the role of precursors. In a community sample of youth with and without early childhood speech/language (S/L) impairments, 12.7% of participants had a substance use disorder (SUD). Among these participants, 42.0% met criteria for more than 1 SUD. Interestingly, rates of SUDs did not differ by S/L status. However, S/L-impaired participants did show greater psychiatric comorbidity and poorer functioning. A total of 80% of S/L participants with SUDs had a concurrent diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, compared with 43.8% of SUDs controls. In a logistic regression analysis, we found age 5 mother-rated problem behavior scores and an interaction between S/L status and teacher-rated conduct problem scores were predictive of SUDs. High conduct scores were predictive of SUDs development among control participants but not among S/L-impaired participants. First substance use and initial SUDs symptoms suggest that a window of opportunity exists to reach these troubled young people before they spiral into addiction.     

Spanish adaptation of the Stress Manifestations Scale of the Student Stress Inventory (SSI-SM)

The aim of the present study was to translate into Spanish and to describe the psychometric properties of the Stress Manifestations Scale of the Student Stress Inventory (SSI-SM), developed by Fimian, Fastenau, Tashner and Cross to identify the main manifestations of stress in adolescents. The scale was applied to a sample of 1,002 pupils from years one and two of Secondary Education. The paper reports the factor structure, an item analysis, the internal consistency, differences by sex and academic year, external evidence of validity, and norms for scoring the scale. The results reveal a factor structure based on three first-order factors (emotional manifestations, physiological manifestations and behavioural manifestations) and one second-order factor (indicative of stress manifestations). In terms of external validity, there was a positive association with measures of perceived stress, aggressiveness, internalized/externalized symptoms, and a negative association with life satisfaction. The results show that the scale is an adequate tool for evaluating stress manifestations in adolescents.