It has become apparent that in recent years the issue of childhood obesity is becoming the number one health risk among children in the United States. Making sure that children participate in daily physical education class is one way to combat the obesity epidemic. The purpose of this action research project was to improve the active participation…

The design of this study closely follows one by Broverman in order to test the applicability of results to graduate students in counseling and counselor education programs. Subjects were administered the Sex-Role Questionnaire; masculinity, femininity, and adult agreement and health scores were computed and compared by t-tests. Results indicated…

This investigation was conducted to determine the extent to which the Caldecott books stereotype the role of the human, animal and inanimate female image. The findings suggest: that in one case, when measured by a content analysis form, the rater's perception of the stereotyping of the human, animal and inanimate female characters in the texts…

To test the proposition that television content can teach sex-typed behaviors and attitudes, this study presented children of two ages (third grade and eighth grade) with one of two sets of television commercials. The first set contained women engaged in nontraditional occupations outside the home. The second set showed traditional women in their…

The purpose of this study was to determine the social role of American women--their marital, maternal, and occupational status--as depicted in literature for intermediate grade children. The hypothesis of this study was that the sex stereotype of "kinder, kuche, kirche" was portrayed by the adult women characters found in the literature available…

A study examined whether exposing children via reading and discussing books in which the main characters are depicted in a non-sexist manner would have any effect upon the degree of gender stereotyping expressed by the children. Eighteen third-grade children at a suburban elementary school in New Jersey completed a pretest to determine the degree…

The purpose of this study was to determine if sex role stereotyping occurs in elementary school readers and, if it does, to what extent. The study examined and classified the roles, relationships, activities, treatments, generalizations, future directions for life and work, and the relative importance assigned to male and female characters in…

This report describes a program for heightening awareness of gender bias within the classroom. The targeted population consists of ages 3 to 18 from elementary and high school settings in the Midwest. The problem of gender bias has been well documented for many years. The solution strategy resulted in the implementation of activities to promote…

This study investigated the relationship of mathematics achievement to attitude toward mathematics and the level of acceptance of sex-role stereotypes. Forth males and 40 females from each of seventh and eleventh grades participated in the study. Measurement of the variables was achieved by use of the California Achievement Test - Mathematics,…

A study attempted to determine if exposing sixth-grade middle school students to sex-equitable literature followed by discussion would show any significant changes in gender-bias attitudes expressed by the students. Subjects, 26 sixth grade students at a suburban middle school in Middletown, New Jersey, completed a pretest to determine gender-bias…

This study explores the possibility of the existence of female sex stereotypes in the common career fiction available in junior high school libraries in New Jersey. The process of determining the existence of a stereotype in the characterization of employed people in these books involved two steps. A method was developed for analyzing the speech…

A study focused on whether literary character sex role stereotyping in children's literature had a negative or positive effect on reading comprehension. It was hypothesized that no significant differences exist in the comprehension of a mixed gender population when reading about characters in non-traditional sex roles. It was further hypothesized…

A study examined six third-grade basal readers (from the years 1969, 1986, and 1993) to determine whether there has been a significant change in the portrayal of women characters throughout the years. Results: (1) showed more female main characters in the 1993 textbook sampled than in the textbooks from earlier periods; (2) found that female…

Fifty-one fifth grade girls and 50 fifth grade boys participated in a study of the effects, on interest and comprehension, of stereotyped and nonstereotyped sex roles in reading materials. Reading materials consisted of eight 450-word stories about a main character who was either a pilot or a ballet dancer. Two plots were written for each…

The purpose of this dissertation was to develop in students an awareness of when sex-role stereotyping occurs and the impact it has on them. It was the goal of the program to afford the students an opportunity to become more aware of the status quo regarding their socialization and broaden their outlooks of what can be. Eighty-nine fifth grade…