Ann Colley

The effects of age, gender and computer experience upon computer attitudes

Summary The effects of age, gender and prior computing experience upon attitudes towards computers were investigated in 278 secondary school pupils drawn from the 11‐12 and 15‐16 years age‐groups. Males from both age‐groups reported greater experience with and more positive attitudes towards computers than females. Younger pupils, both male and female, were found to have greater experience with and more positive attitudes towards computers than older pupils. After controlling for ownership and use of a home computer by means of analyses of covariance, female and male pupils reported similar levels of enjoyment of computers, but age differences in enjoyment and gender and age differences in confidence with computers remained significant. Similar analyses using length of experience as a covariate did not significantly affect gender or age differences. The need to investigate and address the level of confidence of female pupils is briefly discussed.

Effects of Gender Role Identity and Experience on Computer Attitude Components.

The effects of prior experience and gender stereotyping upon the computer anxiety, confidence and liking of 144 male and female students who had just commenced their studies at university were examined. Males were found to have lower computer anxiety, higher confidence and greater liking than females. When the effects of prior experience and gender stereotyping were removed however, no significant sex difference on these measures remained. The pattern of associations between experience, gender stereotyping variables and computer attitude measures differed for males and females. Greater experience at home was associated with lower anxiety for both sexes, with higher confidence for males and with greater liking for females. The influence of other family members also differed for the two sexes. The attitudes of both males and females were more positive if they had a brother who used computers, but the influence of fathers use was positive for males only, while the influence of mothers use was positive for females only. For females but not males, higher scores on the Masculinity scale of the Bern Sex Role Inventory were associated with more positive computer attitudes. The results demonstrate the importance of experience, particularly in a home context, and of gender stereotyping in determining how males and females perceive computers.

Age and gender differences in computer use and attitudes among secondary school students: what has changed?

The present study examined possible changes in the computer experience and attitudes of 11-12-year-old and 15-16-year-old students following a period in which ICT has become much more widely used in the school curriculum. In comparison with findings from a similar study undertaken in the early 1990s, there was some evidence of a reduced gender gap, particularly in the use of computers for applications such as word-processing, graphics, programming and maths. In addition, more recently introduced applications such as e-mail, accessing the internet and using CD-ROMs showed no overall gender difference in frequency of use. However, some gender differences remained, particularly in attitudes. Boys still liked computers more, were more self-confident in their use and, unlike previously, sex-typed them less than girls. They also used computers more frequently out of school, particularly for playing games. There was some evidence that, as found previously, older girls held the least positive attitudes, and it is suggested that their approach to computers may be influenced by the cultural pressures of gender stereotyping. More general age differences in use and attitudes were also found, and these may result from the different computing applications used by Year 7 and Year 11 pupils at school. In summary, although we found evidence of some change since the early 1990s, increased exposure to computes has not closed the gender gap.

Gender Effects in School Subject Preferences: a research note

Summary Rankings of liking for nine curriculum subjects were obtained from 93 middle school pupils aged 11‐13 years, who also completed the Childrens Sex Role Inventory. Statistically significant gender differences in the rankings of English and humanities were found, which were both preferred by girls, and for physical education (PE) and science, which were preferred by boys. Some statistically significant associations between subject rankings and sex typing measures also emerged. Higher rankings of music and humanities were associated with higher Femininity scores, while higher rankings for PE were associated with lower Femininity scores. The only significant association with Masculinity was for English, where higher rankings were associated with lower Masculinity. No significant associations with Masculinity or Femininity were found for science, a traditionally male‐stereotyped curriculum area. Associations found between the rankings of the different subjects indicated a tendency for pupils to prefer ...

Gender-Linked Differences in the Style and Content of E-Mails to Friends

Previous research has found gender differences in the style of language used in both written communication and face-to-face interaction. Such differences have also been found in electronic interactions with strangers. This study examined the style and content of emails describing a recent holiday written by men and women for male and female friends. In line with traditional gender stereotypes, some gender differences were found in the topics covered, in the form of greater coverage of the social and domestic topics of shopping, night life, and cost by women; and the impersonal, external topics of the location, journey, and local people by men. The e-mails from female participants contained a higher incidence of features associated with the maintenance of rapport and intimacy than those from male participants, and this was more pronounced in the e-mails from female participants to male friends.

School Subject Preferences of Pupils in Single Sex and Co‐educational Secondary Schools

Summary Rankings of school subject preferences were obtained from 321 male and 327 female pupils aged 11‐12 years, and 245 male and 240 female pupils aged 15‐16 years, from both single sex and co‐educational secondary schools. Overall rank orders showed an effect of school type for younger pupils only, in which evidence for less gender stereotyping of school subjects in single sex schools was found. The rankings of the older pupils, while not affected by school type, did show a clear effect of gender, with higher rankings being given to mathematics, science and physical education by boys and to art by girls.

School Subject Preferences: Age and gender differences revisited

As a follow-up to data collected in the early 1990s, rankings of school subject preferences were obtained from 144 girls and 218 boys aged 11-12 years, and 269 girls and 300 boys aged 15-16 years. The overall rankings showed evidence of the persistence of gender differences in preferences for a number of curricular areas. However, changes were also apparent. Practical subjects appeared further up the rankings than previously, particularly for the younger students. This finding may reflect a change in the status of such subjects relative to the more academic subjects. More inter-school variability between the subject preference orders was evident among the older than the younger students, suggesting a greater sensitivity to school-related factors among this age group.

Style and Content in E-Mails and Letters to Male and Female Friends

This study examined gender differences in the style and content of e-mails and letters sent to friends on the topic of how time had been spent in the previous summer. Gender differences were found in both style and content supporting previous findings that female communication is more relational and expressive than that of males and focuses more upon personal and domestic topics. Women used the less formal stylistic conventions of e-mails to signal excitability in different ways to their male and female friends, whereas men ended their communications in a more relational way to their female than their male friends, and the nature of this difference varied according to the type of communication used.

Girls, Boys and Technology in Music Education

Information technology is having a profound impact upon the music curriculum, and there is general agreement that boys and girls should have equal opportunities to benefit from it. Although music has traditionally been a subject in which girls predominate, technology is clearly stereotyped as a male preserve. The present paper reports some findings from the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Gender and educational computing in the humanities’ project at the University of Leicester, which is using survey and interview techniques with a large sample of pupils and teachers in the Midlands to investigate these questions. The preliminary results suggest that boys are more confident in their use of music technology; that they are showing an increasing interest in music as a result of it; and that teachers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that girls are not disadvantaged in the use of music technology.

Sex roles and explanations of leisure behaviour

There is increasing evidence that men and women have different experiences of leisure, both in terms of their participation and in terms of needs fulfilled by leisure activities. Studies of leisure behaviour have in the past tended to neglect the effects of sex roles which may qualify and limit the results obtained from them. Growing impetus to study the constraints on womens leisure has come from the feminist movement. In order to understand leisure behaviour, however, study of the implications of both male and female sex roles for leisure choice is necessary.