To encourage the formation of science identity among girls, many scholars and practitioners have suggested to assign same-gender science teachers to students so that the teachers can serve as gender role models. However, direct evidence of any long-term effect of gender-matching is scarce. In a nationally representative survey of college students…

This study investigated female students who attended a STEM course with the Arts (STEAM) in comparison to a traditional STEM course and the impact it had on desire to pursue a STEM degree. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare female to male students' interest in pursuing STEM degrees. In addition, follow up data for registration…

Contemporary adolescents rely heavily on technology and media to navigate romantic relationships. In this mixed-methods study, adolescents and young adults (N = 204) detailed their perceptions of how entertainment media and interactive technology influence adolescent romantic relationships. The majority of adolescents and young adults perceived…

Open-ended data from the 2009 National Survey of Peer Leaders were analyzed to explore the impact of peer leadership on academic performance. While most participants suggested the experience had no effect on academics, perceptions varied by role. Peer leaders in academic and community service roles described increased skills and understanding of…

The idea that female faculty might serve as role models for female students has led to studies of the effect of female faculty on female student performance. Due to varying levels of aggregation of the measure of student exposure to female faculty--percentage of female faculty at an institution or department, percentage of classes taught by…

This study extends the scope of research that examines the connection between physical attractiveness and student perception through a survey analysis. While other studies concentrate on physical attractiveness alone, we examined not only perceptions of attractiveness but its impact on students' perception of knowledge, approachability and faculty…

Current data suggest fewer females than males continue to be interested in engineering and that this gender gap is first evidenced during middle school years. One might expect that female engineering role models would encourage adolescent girls to pursue future careers in engineering and thereby increase the girls' interests in and attitudes…

Latina/os are the fastest growing minority group in the United States and in California, yet they have not been able to maintain an adequate educational attainment and achievement level in comparison to other ethnic groups (Marin & Marin, 1991). Typically, Latinas are not able to achieve the amount of education they set out to accomplish…

Introduction: Attachment organization across the lifespan and across generations, long-term predictions from attachment organization to later psychosocial functioning, and the possibility of altering attachment organization with intervention suggest that attachment theory may potentially shed valuable light on adult social development and deviant…

This study explores the relationships between the frequency and identities of heroes as role models used in the social studies textbooks in teaching 20 core values and prospective teachers' preferences of heroes. The findings indicated that there are striking similarities and differences between these two variables. For gender variable, 97.4% of…

This study explored college women's ideas regarding how their lives would change if their appearance were consistent with a media-supported female beauty ideal. Participants rated self-generated life changes they associated with looking like a media ideal in terms of likelihood and positivity. Women's tendency to link positive and likely life…