Women are underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and in some non-STEM majors (e.g., philosophy). Combining newly gathered data on students' perceptions of college major traits with data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we find that perceived gender bias against women…

Girls are more likely than boys to use counting strategies rather than higher-level mental strategies to solve arithmetic problems. Prior research suggests that dependence on counting strategies may have negative implications for girls' later math achievement. We investigated the relation between first-grade girls' verbal and spatial skills and…

Despite general consensus over the value of measuring self-reported offending, discrepancies exist in methods of scoring self-reported offending and the length of the reference period over which offending is assessed. This analysis compared the concurrent interassociations and longitudinal predictive strength of diversity, frequency, and severity…

Compared educational levels and drinking behaviors of 204 alcoholic women from various backgrounds. Results showed most alcoholic women starting drinking in high school or the early years of college. Those who dropped out of college were the heaviest drinkers, and started drinking younger. (JAC)

Black women have been described as being in "double jeopardy" due to the combined effects of racism and sexism. To explore the multiple effects of institutional discrimination and prejudice based on race and/or sex, the experiences of 52 highly successful older black women were examined, using tapes from the Black Women Oral History…

Used stress and coping model to study predictors of individual differences in caregiver depression and satisfaction among 72 wife caregivers of husbands with Alzheimer's disease. Specifically examined relationship-focused caregiver coping strategies. Findings support need for expansion of conceptualization of caregiver coping to include…

Assessed several behavioral and personality characteristics that have been implicated in studying the onset of bulimia in female college students (N=80) classified into bulimia, binge eating, and control groups. Results indicated that bulimics and binge eaters differed significantly on all but a few variables. (LLL)

Examined the prevalence of mental health disorders and the sociodemographic factors associated with having a mental health disorder in a probability sample of 185 African American and white single mothers. Analyses revealed that race and being on welfare were associated with increased risk of having a mental health disorder, highlighting the need…

Reports a study that examined the influence of authoritarianism on the formation of behavioral intentions by female college students. High authoritarians took subjective norms less into account relative to low authoritarians, providing support for the theory that personal and subjective norms can be distinguished empirically. (LS)

Tested model relating girls' pubertal timing to mothers' history of psychopathology, mediated by family discord and father absence/stepfather presence. Found that mothers' history of mood disorders predicted earlier daughters' puberty, with the relation fully mediated by dyadic stress and biological father absence. Stepfather presence best…

Support for learning, as perceived by 516 adolescents, was compared to data collected five years earlier on family characteristics, ability, achievement, and school attitude. Educational aspirations were related to parents' and teachers' support. Females' occupational aspirations were influenced by situational variables; males were also influenced…

Data collected during the standardization of the 1976 Metropolitan Readiness Tests (MRT) were examined to provide information on sex differences in prereading skills. The MRT are designed for administration either at the beginning of kindergarten or between kindergarten and first grade. Performance on the six subtests and the total test on both…