The purpose of this study was to identify the gender representation and language use in 20 children's storybooks by Pratham books and Tulika publishers. Children begin to learn values and perspectives in the early years of their life. This learning about various aspects builds the foundations of how their ideas and views are shaped. Hence, reading…

For many library patrons, the reference desk is the logical place to begin research on a topic. The purpose of this study is to determine if patrons, given a choice of either a male or a female librarian to approach, have a gender bias when seeking information at the reference desk. A total of 100 library users were unobtrusively observed in the…

A survey was conducted to examine the reading interests of middle school students. Subjects were sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in a metropolitan, public middle school located in a southeastern state. It was hypothesized that the data would reveal statistically significant categories of reading interest, and would reveal significant…

Research over the past 25 years indicates that children's persistent stereotyping of career roles influences their career choices. The following eight independent variables are examined so as to understand secondary school students' occupational sex-role stereotyping (OSRS): (1) gender; (2) socioeconomic status of the parents; (3) mother's…

A study analyzed two basal reading series to determine if they depicted realistically the role of the career woman as she exists in society. A list of female careers in the 1989 editions of Houghton-Mifflin and McGraw Hill reading basals for grades 1 to 6 was compared to the career categories of the "United States Bureau of Census,…

Using the "Checklist for Evaluating Sexism in Reading," an analysis was undertaken of the Ginn 360 series and the Ginn 720 series of basal readers for sex stereotypes and related language usage. The main characters and illustrations in approximately ten stories at each reading level were analyzed. Of the 116 stories examined, 49 featured…

This study was performed using a convenience sample of 90 students at a northeastern community college to determine gender differences of math anxiety and its effect on math avoidance. Four sections of an introductory English class were given a mathematics anxiety rating scale (MARS) and a math avoidance survey. Five hypotheses were analyzed using…

The present study examined the impact of an experience with adults in sex-role reversed occupations upon elementary school children's sex-stereotyped beliefs. Subjects were 68 children in first, third, and fifth grades from a parochial elementary school in San Leandro, California. The adult occupations test, a paper and pencil assessment…

The present study investigated relationships between cognitive components of children's sex-role development and the bases of their attributions of sex-stereotypes to a particular gender. Specifically, it was predicted that the number of sex-stereotypes children correctly attributed would be significantly related to gender differences between the…

A study was conducted to determine the stability of the effect of sex-typed reading material on the reading interests and comprehension of fifth grade boys and girls. It involved a direct replication of a 1967 study so that a comparison of data from the 312 subjects of that study could be made with the data from 374 subjects of 1979. Reading…

A study examined gender differences in reading attitudes among school age children. The hypothesis was that school age children in grades K-8 regard reading as a predominately feminine activity. Subjects were 269 students, grades K-8, from a low-income, urban school setting. Students completed Reading Attitude Surveys, modified from the Downing…

Interviews with 60 Mexican-American female farmworkers in the Coachella Valley (California) identified their major problems, needs, and suggestions of topics to be presented in a community-based educational radio program. Two major problems identified by these women were low wages and occupational exposure to pesticides. Contrary to cultural…

Two hundred ninety-nine stories from the 1974 and 1981 Houghton-Mifflin primary- and intermediate-level basal readers were analyzed to determine if there had been any changes in the ways males and females were portrayed. The data indicated that sex role stereotypes still exist in children's literature. Though there was an improvement in the number…

A study examined the effects of sex-typed content and sex role preference on 87 fifth grade boys' and 64 fifth grade girls' reading material preferences. It also explored how high- and low-rated sex-typed reading content and students' sex and sex role preferences influenced reading comprehension. After reading the sex-typed content, which…

Sex-role stereotypes have been defined as the constellation of psychological traits that characterize one sex more than another. This thesis investigates the role of eight independent variables--gender, classification of student, socioeconomic status of the parents, mother's employment outside the home, family structure, parental education level,…