Sex role development as a function of college experiences

The purpose was to evaluate the effect of college experiences on androgyny. One hundred and thirty-nine freshman and 57 senior women completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) as well as measures to assess precollege variables, including a biographical questionnaire, a life experience survey, a measure of parental identification, and parental sex role inventories. In addition, seniors completed measures that assessed college experiences. Almost all of the scales on the two precollege questionnaires that measured parental variables were found related to student's sex role. Consequently, all remaining relationships with sex role were examined with and without controlling for these parental scales. None of the variables that measured college experiences were found to be significantly related to sex role. The results did not support the hypothesis that seniors would assume a more masculine sex role than freshmen. However, the seniors did obtain significantly lower scores than freshmen on the BSRI Femininity scale.