sex-role orientations of high school and college students

Sex Roles, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1979

B r i e f R e p o r t

Sex-Role Orientations of High School and

College Students

Steven L. Beedle, x Eunice P. Jordan-Viola, 2 and Herbert J. Cross Washington State University

Previous studies (e.g., Matthews & Tiedeman, 1964; Rand & Miller, 1972) have found a decrease in career commitment of women between the junior high school and senior high school years. These studies hypothesized that this decrease may be a result of senior high school women giving marriage a greater priority in their plans.

Interest in the psychology of women, however, has increased in recent years, with particular emphasis on the emotional, intellectual, and behavioral consequences of stereotypic sex-role connotations. The traditional roles of women in the educational and occupational sectors of society have been challenged by thoughtful and vocal advocates of equality and social change, necessitating reevaluation and redefinition of sex-appropriate behavior by both men and w o m e n .

To explore possible reevaluations of sex-role attitudes, the present study analyzed sex-role orientations of 86 (43 females, 43 males)undergraduate introductory psychology students enrolled at Washington State University and 86 (43 females, 43 males) students attending Pullman, Washington, Public High school. All class levels were represented in the high school sample. Participation in the study was voluntary on the part of all students.

Each student was issued a copy of the revised French-Lesser Student At- titude Scale, a 65-item true-false questionnaire (French & Lesser, 1964). This attitude scale consists of two subscales: a 34-item scale, which measures the extent to which subjects value various aspects of intellectual (career) attainment,

1 All correspondence should be addressed to Steven L. Beedle, Department of Psychology, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116.

2 Now at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

363 0360-0025/79/0600-0363503.00/0 © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation

364 Beedle, Jordan-Viola, and Cross

and a 31-item scale, which measures the extent to which subjects value various aspects of the traditional woman's role. Both subscales are structurally inde- pendent and free to covary, so that a subject may obtain maximum scores on both scales. The study was conducted in group sessions of varying size and all students had unlimited time to complete the attitude scale.

A student received two scores: (1) a traditional orientation score and (2) a career orientation score. Group means were computed and analyzed in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Male and female scores were analyzed separately. Results indicated a significant traditional-career main effect between college and high school women (F = 25.10, df = 1/84, p < .001). A significant interaction (F = 12.70, df = 1/84, p < .001) between orientation scores and population (college, high school) was also found. In addition, a trend emerged with mean high school career scores being higher than college career scores (15.70 versus 12.14). This trend reversed with traditional scores (13.05 for college versus 10.30 for high school). Male data analysis also demonstrated a significant orientation score and population interaction (F = 25.50, df = 1/84, p < .001). Further analysis by the Newman-Keuls test for multiple comparisons revealed high school career scores were higher than college career scores (p < .05, 14.40 versias 10.21, respectively). In agreement with the trend for women students, male traditional scores were lower for high school than for college students (10.74 versus 13.54, respectively).

The present study suggests more favorable attitudes toward the pursuit of intellectual and Occupational attainment on the part of high school rather than college women. This finding is consistent with the decline in career commit- ment with increased age reported by other investigators (e,g., Matthews & Tiedeman, 1964; Rand & Miller, 1972). Interestingly, high school and college males reported a career-traditional orientation on the part of women similar to that of the female students. Instructions on the French-Lesser Student Attitude Scale for the male students asked them to respond in terms of the attitudes expressed by "women at this school," so that these male results may be reflec- tion of the attitudes of the women themselves as stated and discussed with their fellow male students.

REFERENCES

French, E. G., & Lesser, G. S. Some characteristics of the achievement motive in women. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1964, 68, 119-128.

Matthews, E., & Tiedeman, D. V. Attitudes toward career and marriage and the develop- ment of life style in young women. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1964, 11, 375-384.

Rand, L., & Miller, A. L. A developmental cross-sectioning of women's careers and marriage attitudes and life plans. Journal of VocationalBehavior, 1972, 2, 317-331.