Carol J. Erdwins

Work-family conflict, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment among employed mothers.

This study investigated the impact of work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) on womens organizational commitment and examined both the direct and moderating effects of their perceived organizational support. Participants were 143 professional employed mothers with at least 1 preschool-age child. The study found that WIF was positively related to continuance organizational commitment but unrelated to affective commitment, and FIW was not related to either form of organizational commitment. Results also indicated that perceived organizational support exhibited a main effect on both types of commitment.

The Social and Emotional Adjustment of Young, Intellectually Gifted Children.

Since Terman’s longitudinal investigation of gifted children, there have been numerous additional studies comparing the gifted with their average IQ peers on intellectual, academic, and achievement criteria (e.g., Flanagan & Cooley, 1966; Gallagher & Crowder, 1957; Klausmeier & Check, 1962; Klausmeier & Loughlin, 1961; Terman, Baldwin, & Bronson, 1925). Much less attention has been paid to how the intellectually-gifted child may compare to his/her chronological or mental age mates on social and emotional adjustment characteristics. This is in spite of the fact that several early theorists (Jung, 1954; Lombroso, 1891) suggested that the gifted may be predisposed to emotional instability. More recent studies have unanimously rejected this assumption ~nd consistently find no evidence of greater emotional disturbance in gifted populations (Kennedy, 1962; Ramaseshan, 1957, Warren & Heist, 1960; Wrenn, Ferguson, & Kennedy, 1962). These studies as well as others (Haier & Denham, 1976; Lucito, 1964; Milgram & Milgram, 1976) have, in fact, found gifted students scoring higher than their average IQ peers on such traits as self-sufficiency, dominance, independence, originality, nonconformity, positive self-concept, and internal locus of control. Most of this research, however, has been done with high school or college-aged students and has used same-aged peers or normative data as the comparison group. Only one study thus far has attempted to compare younger gifted children with an older population as well as their chronological age mates. Lessinger and Martinson (1961) found a group of gifted eighth graders to be much more similar in their responses on the California Psychological Inventory to both a group of gifted high school students and the general adult population than they were to their same-aged peers. The present study attempted to focus on the emotional and social development of the younger gifted child. Since gifted children have frequently been found to function intellectually and academically several years ahead of their chronological peers, it might be hypothesized that in the emotional and social spheres of their lives they will also be more similar to their mental age mates. This hypothesis .

The Relationship of Sex Role to Self-Concept.

Investigated the relationship of sex role in 136 Ss as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory to measures of self-concept and overt anxiety. Persons who rated themselves low in both masculine and feminine attributes were found to have significantly poorer self-concept than both androgynous and masculine Ss, which suggests that this group should be distinguished from high-high scorers labeled as androgynous. There was no significant difference in self-concept between masculine and androgynous Ss, and the masculine group reported significantly lower levels of anxiety. These findings support a previous contention that it is the presence of masculine attributes rather than a balance of masculinity and femininity that is crucial to personal adjustment.

Different types of day care and their relationship to maternal satisfaction, perceived support, and role conflict

Mothers using three different kinds of day care arrangements for their preschoolers: home day care providers, day care centers, andau pairs, were asked to rate their satisfaction with these types of care on a multidimensional scale. Measures of perceived support from spouse and employer, role conflict and maternal separation anxiety were also completed. While demographic variables including mothers age, education, and income proved to be highly correlated with the kind of day care chosen, role conflict and anxiety about being separated from her child were unrelated to type of arrangement used. Although the mothers generally reported at least moderate levels of satisfaction with different aspects of their childs care, those using day care centers were significantly less satisfied with the availability of their arrangements. Mothers using both centers and home day care providers also expressed significantly more concern with the amount of attention their child received.

Personality Correlates of Age and Life Roles in Adult Women

The association between age/family stage, career role, and personality traits was studied using a multivariate statistical approach. Young adult, midlife, and older women from four role groups—homemaker, married career, single career, and student—were compared on a number of personality measures including achievement motivation, affiliation, autonomy, cultural sex role characteristics, self esteem, and adjustment. While some of the expected group differences did not appear, some significant age and role differences were found. Older women showed less achievement motivation and had a greater need for affiliation than young adult and midlife women. Career women had a more internalized locus of control than homemakers and students. When age and role were considered together, the age-role groups were differentiated on autonomy, femininity, and adjustment. There were no differences between either age or role groups on measures of self-esteem, well-being, socialization, or other personality variables.

Child care satisfaction: The effects of parental gender and type of child care used

A survey of 1675 parents of preschool-aged children revealed higher levels of satisfaction with child care provided by relatives and byau pairs in the family’s home as compared to either center-based care or home care providers. Parental satisfaction with these latter two forms of child care did not differ significantly. Mothers in general were more satisfied with their child care than fathers. However, child care satisfaction was a significant predictor of work/family balance for both genders.

A comparison of different aspects of self-concept for young, middle-aged, and older women.

Previous research that focused on self-esteem in adult women has yielded a variety of contradictory results, with some studies that report more positive self-concepts in the middle-aged in comparison to older and younger women and others that report the opposite. Similar conflicting findings have been presented for women over 60. This study compared women in four age groups: 18 to 22, 29 to 39, 40 to 55, and 60 to 75 on the Tennessee Self Concept Scale, which yields self-esteem scores on different life aspects such as family relations, morality, and physical self as well as a general self-esteem measure. The age groups did not differ significantly in overall level of self-esteem, but they could be discriminated on the more specific aspects of self-concept; the 40- to 55-year-olds reported more positive feelings about themselves in their family relations and morality than did the 18 to 22 year olds. Women over 60, compared to the other age groups, showed more defensiveness and also gave responses more similar to a diagnosed psychotic group.

A Comparison of Sex Role and Related Personality Traits in Young, Middle-Aged, and Older Women:

Self-descriptions on sex role characteristics and related personality traits including achievement and affiliation were compared in four age groups of women: eighteen to twenty-two, twenty-nine to thirty-nine, forty to fifty-five, and sixty to seventy-five year-olds. In general, the two younger groups emerged as least like the traditional feminine sex role stereotype. In comparison to the older women, they were more willing to ascribe masculine sex role characteristics to themselves and rated themselves as less responsible, self-controlled, and affiliative. Conversely, the women over sixty and homemakers in their forties and fifties adhered most strongly to the conventional feminine traits. These differences are explained in terms of the recent changes in societal attitudes toward sex roles. There is also some evidence that significant life roles are related to self-descriptions on these personality dimensions.

Personality Traits of Mature Women in Student versus Homemaker Roles.

Summary Two equal groups of mature American women (total N = 80, aged 29 to 55 years), one composed of those returning to school and the other composed of those choosing to remain full-time homemakers, were compared on personality measures of sex role, self-esteem, and achievement motivation. Future life plans were also assessed. Although homemakers in comparison to the students described themselves as more feminine, they did not exhibit lower self-esteem or less achievement motivation, as had been predicted. The results suggest that mature women students may be more flexible in their sex role identities and less tied to a nurturant, interpersonally oriented role but that they are not necessarily more ambitious, confident, or achievement-oriented than homemakers.

The Disruptive Behavior Scale: an objective assessment of unmanageable social behavior in adolescents.

The Disruptive Behavior Scale, a 26-item behavioral checklist, provides an objective measure of socially unacceptable public secondary school behavior and may prove to be of value in determining public school exit and reentry plans for disruptive adolescents. The checklist may be completed in 15-25 minutes and does not require direct administration. Test-retest reliability scores were significant (p less than .05) for all items; item-whole test scores were significant for all but 2 items. Both initial and replication validity studies that involved comparisons between public school students and adolescents expelled from public schools yielded significant differences (p less than .05) in the expected direction.