Are sex differences in child motor activity level a function of sex differences in maturational status?

By virtue of being farther along a developmental path for motor activity level, girls may appear to be the less active sex when compared to less physically mature but same-aged boys. If so, observed sex differences in activity level may be an epiphenomenon of sex differences in maturity related declines in AL. To test this hypothesis and the associated premise that females would be more mature and less active than males, the customary activity levels and relative physical maturities of 83 5-8-year-olds were assessed. Relative maturity (percentage of estimated adult height attained) was negatively related to activity level, and girls were both less motorically active and more mature than boys. Though reduced in magnitude, the sex effect remained significant after maturity was added as a predictor of AL. Thus, sex differences are not due only to maturity differences but may be partially mediated by them.     

Identifying sex differences in reading disability

The issue of sex differences in reading disability has been of recent interest in relation to sex ratios in families with reading disabled children and to possible sex biases in referred populations. Data from a study of 570 twins are used to develop alternative definitions of reading disability that vary in the manner to which sex effects are taken into account. These definitions include discrepancies between reading quotients and IQ, the use of the regression of reading onto IQ and chronological age/reading age differences. In each case the reading and spelling disability was defined either separately for the sexes or based upon the data for the sexes combined and with and without an IQ>90 exclusion criterion. The consequences of using the alternative definitions for prevalence, sex ratio and heritability are examined. The results demonstrate that the characteristics of reading disabled children vary with the way disability is defined. The excess of males seems to be a robust finding. Definitions that take into account differences in mean score for males and females reduce but do not eradicate the sex ratio. From the genetic analysis, there is no support for the suggestion that the genetic effect on reading is greater for females than males. It is concluded that the use of regression based procedures for identifying reading disability is desirable but that at present there is insufficient evidence to justify the adoption of separate regression procedures for the two sexes.     

Age,sex, and racial differences in harsh physical punishment: Results from a nationally representative United States sample

The purpose of this research was to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment in childhood in a nationally representative sample of the United States. Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) collected in 2004 and 2005 (n = 34,653). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment. Results suggest that the prevalence of harsh physical punishment has been decreasing among more recently born age groups; however, there appear to be sex and racial differences in this trend over time. The magnitude of the decrease appears to be stronger for males than for females. By race, the decrease in harsh physical punishment over time is only apparent among Whites; Black participants demonstrate little change over time, and harsh physical punishment seems to be increasing over time among Hispanics. Prevention and intervention efforts that educate about the links of physical punishment to negative outcomes and alternative non-physical discipline strategies may be particularly useful in reducing the prevalence of harsh physical punishment over time.     

Reconciling sex differences in information-processing and career outcomes

Conclusion Information-processing theory has the potential to yield new understanding of the career development process. However, theorists and researchers must be cognizant of the many ways in which current approaches are limited in their ability to relate process explanations to career outcomes which differ for females and males. These approaches could be made more sensitive to female/male differences by: (a) examining the nature of thedecision which is being investigated; (b) expanding the notion ofinformation to include that which is relevant to the decision regarding the importance of work in one's life and also that which relates to the interpersonal context of occupations; (c) relating the vocationalschema to otherschema, i.e., the genderschema; and (d) noting whether process variables are general, sex-related, or sex-specific.Patricia L. Wolleat is Professor and Chair, Department of Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education, 321 Education, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.     

Sex differences in rats’ stationary-cage activity measured by observation and automatic recording

Rats’ stationary-cage activity was measured using simultaneous observational time sampling and automatic recording via photobeams. Females scored higher than males on the combined observational categories of rearing, ambulating, and sniffing, but lower on grooming, eating, and drinking, with these differences consistent across 9 days of confinement and across time of day of observation. There were no sex differences in the time spent inactive or in the number of photobeam breaks. Beam breaks were related positively to sniffing and inversely to inactivity. The results raise questions regarding the interpretation of sex differences in behavior in novel and familiar environments and provide evidence on the comparability of observational and automatic methods of activity measurement.     

Some contributions to sex differences in scholastic aptitude scores

In this study no significant direct effect of sex on performance on ASAT was found. Further, sex differences in performance were found to be the result of females having a higher verbal ability as measured by English assessments, males studying more mathematics, and males having a greater confidence in success on ASAT. For this sample it was found that the female students achieved about 0.40 score points on ASAT more than males, after regressing out father's occupation, English assessment, hours spent studying mathematics, and confidence in success. The adjustment to ASAT scores in 1983 would certainly account for the positive effect of sex; i.e. being a female increased a student's score by 0.40 score points. After allowing for this adjustment of approximately 1.0 score points, being a male increased a students ASAT score by 0.60 score points.ASAT was found to favour students who scored well in English and those students who studied more hours of mathematics. English, in part, tests verbal aptitude and consequently it might be expected that there would be a significant positive effect related to English assessment. The number of hours of mathematics studied is not itself a direct measure of aptitude and consequently it may be considered that the number of hours of mathematics studied provides an advantage for performance on ASAT. However, it is not unreasonable to expect that it is those students of greater quantitative aptitude who would study more mathematics. The significant mathematics hours effect may be a result of this, since there is no control for quantitative aptitude within the model. It was, however, the very large effect which the score on the confidence in success attitude scale had on ASAT performance that was the most suprising. For some undetermined, perhaps social, reason, females had a significantly lower confidence than males.The relationship between Confidence in Success and performance might be expected since, in part, the Confidence in Success variable measures how well students thought they did on ASAT. It is still clear however, that after confidence in success is taken into account, sex has no significant effect on ASAT score. The predictors of success are English ability, hours spent in the study of mathematics, and confidence.     

Predatory overtones of open-field testing in chickens

Based on a model which holds that open-field behavior is due in large part to an interaction between social separation and the threat of predation, seven experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between tonic immobility and open-field activity in chickens. The results showed that placement in an open field prior to testing for tonic immobility reliably enhanced the duration of immobility. Similarly, procedures that have been shown to modify the length of the immobility episode had a comparable effect on the timing of activity onset in an open field. Since tonic immobility has been independently implicated as a putative predator defense, the correspondence between open-field behavior and tonic immobility was taken as indirect support for the hypothesis that open-field testing contains overtones of predation.     

Associations between Secondary School Pupils' Definitions of Bullying,Attitudes towards Bullying,and Tendencies to Engage in Bullying: Age and sex differences

A self-report questionnaire about involvement in different types of bullying, what behaviours were regarded as bullying, and attitudes towards bullying, bullies and victims was completed by pupils in Year 7 (aged 11/12) through to Year 10 (aged 14/15) ( n = 170). Overall, direct verbal assault was the most commonly reported, and stealing the least frequently reported, type of bullying. For six specific types of bullying investigated, and for a composite measure of all types of bullying, significantly fewer Year 9 pupils than pupils in the other three years reported that they had behaved in these ways in the previous week. No significant sex differences emerged on these measures. These findings suggest that general patterns in bullying activities as a function of age and sex obtained in previous studies do not always hold. Although most pupils indicated that they thought that six out of eight types of behaviour viewed as bullying by researchers should be regarded as bullying, a substantial minority did not. The present study also extended bullying research by examining associations between pupils' definitions and attitudes towards bullying and their reports of bullying others. For one specific type of bullying, 'Forcing people to do things that they don't want to do', significantly fewer pupils who reported that they had behaved in this way than who reported that they had not done so included it in their definition of bullying. A consistent pattern of significant negative correlations of moderate size between attitudes and self-reported involvement in specific types of bullying were obtained. The implications of these findings for those concerned with tackling bullying in schools were discussed.     

School counsellors' perceptual sex role differences in Dutch secondary education

In a pilot study two Dutch secondary schools have been investigated with respect to four characteristics of school counselling as perceived by the school counsellors and students: (1) What counselling in the school should or should not be; (2) What are the reasons for starting a counselling activity; (3) What are the outcomes of school counselling; and (4) What are the necessities for school counselling.As a total group both males and females disagree with students on the practice of counselling within the context of the school, while both groups agree with students on the person oriented aims of counselling. Males and females perceive different reasons why counselling in the school is necessary and they perceive different kinds of outcomes. Female counsellors perceive markedly less reasons for counselling in school achievements of students than males, while they report more reasons for counselling than males where the prevention of conflicts between students in the classroom are concerned. Apart from discrepancies between male and female school counsellors, the students perceive more counselling outcomes than both groups of counsellors in terms of coping behaviour and conflict management. Students and counsellors disagree on several necessities for counselling, such as the amount of commitment required for counselling duties and the prerequisites of cooperation and support between counsellors.Paper presented at the XIIth International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, 22–26 June 1986, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden     

Social reinstatement and open-field testing in chickens

Based on a model which holds that open-field behavior represents a combination of predator evasion tactics and attempts to reinstate contact with conspecifics, five experiments were conducted with chickens to assess the effects on them of social separation in response to being placed in a novel enclosure. As a means of independently demonstrating reinstatement tendencies, it was shown that birds would run faster down a straight alley if the goalbox contained one or more conspecifics than if it was empty or contained a guinea pig. For birds tested in pairs, the effects were different, depending on whether they had been reared in pairs or in larger groups. On the other hand, although chicks froze and remained silent longer in pairs, they seemed to be relatively insensitive to whether the pair member was a cagemate or a stranger. Finally, as predicted, reinstatement tendencies diminished and predator evasion tactics predominated with increasing age.     

Age differences in the reliability of the psychiatric interview of the child

The NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, a highly structured interview covering a broad range of clinically relevant symptoms and behaviors, was administered to 242 disturbed children and their parents. Parent and child were interviewed separately and were assessed twice at a median interval of 9 days. Intraclass correlations between symptom scores derived from the interviews indicated that parents were generally more reliable than children in reporting child symptoms. However, test-retest reliabilities showed an opposite age pattern for parent and child. The reliability of the child's report increased with age and was lower for children aged 6-9 than those aged 10-13 and 14-18. Conversely, the reliability of the parent's report decreased with the age of the child and was slightly higher for children aged 6-9 than those aged 10-13 and 14-18. These findings were interpreted in terms of children's cognitive development and age-related shifts in parents' perceptions and awareness of their children's behavior.     

Age-related differences in rats’ spontaneous alternation

Fifteen-day-old rats made random choices in a T-maze, while adult levels of alternation (approximately 70%) were noted among 30-day-olds. Also, younger pups were insensitive to a lengthening of the intertrial interval, unlike older animals whose rate of alternation decreased when a 1-h delay was interposed between arm entries. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that hippocampal development is a factor in the ontogeny of postweaning locomotion. The unsystematic pattern of goal-arm selections among 15-day-olds suggests that ontongenetic variation in the utilization of stimuli may underlie developmental shifts in spontaneous alternation.     

Race and sex differences on the McCarthy Screening Test

MST scores were analyzed to determine race and sex differences on the six subtests. The sample consisted of 971 five- and six-year-old children. Differences in performance between males and females were found on the Verbal Memory and Leg Coordination subtests. Differences between white and nonwhite children were found on the Verbal Memory and Numerical Memory subtests.