Recent reviews indicate that most instructional materials are still sexist. This article includes definitions of sexist and sex equitable that incorporate both language form and gender content. It presents generalizations synthesized • from research regarding the effects of gender characteristics of instructional materials on students. These generalizations, which follow, apply to students from preschool through college age: (a) Use of gender-specified language forms explicitly including both sexes yields gender-balanced associations.Use of male generic language frequently results in male associations, (b) Exposure to sex-equitable materials results in more flexible sex role attitudes for both males and females. There is little generalization to areas not specifically covered in the materials, except perhaps in extensive interventions. .Degree of attitude change is directly related to the amount of exposure, (c) Students often prefer materials with same-sex main characters. Students do not reject sex-equitable materials, (d) The patterns for comprehension are not as clear, but sex-equitable materials do not decrease comprehension. A critique of the research studies and implications for future research are included.
This study assessed the effects of portraying a female main character in a traditionally male role on male and female children's sex role perceptions and story evaluations. Children read a series of stories in which either the majority of main characters were female, or the majority of main characters were male, or male and female main characters were equally represented. The results of the study indicate that (a) exposure to female main characters in nontraditional role activities increased children's perceptions of the number of girls who could engage in these same activities but did not affect perceptions of sex role activities not presented in the stories, and (b) story evaluations did not vary as a function of sex of the main character.
Studies suggest that there may be an association between sleep and growth; however, the relationship is not well understood. Changes in biology and external factors such as school schedule heavily impact the sleep of adolescents, during a critical phase for growth. This study assessed the changes in sleep across school days, weekends and school holidays, while also measuring height and weight changes, and self-reported alterations in food intake and physical activity. The impact of morningness-eveningness (M-E) on height change and weight gain was also investigated. In a sample of 63 adolescents (mean age = 13.13, SD = 0.33, 31 males) from two independent schools in South Australia, height and weight were measured weekly for 4 weeks prior to the school holidays and 4 weeks after the school holidays. Participants also completed a Morningness/Eveningness Scale and 7-day sleep, diet and physical activity diaries prior to, during and after the school holidays. Participants at one school had earlier wake times during the weekends than participants attending the other school, leading to a significantly shorter sleep duration on weekends for those participants. Regardless of school, sleep was significantly later and longer during the holidays (p < 0.001) and those with a stronger morning preference fell asleep (F = 3.4, p = 0.001) and woke (F = 2.0, p = 0.027) earlier than evening types. Growth rate was lower during the holiday weeks. For those attending the school with limited sleep in opportunities, growth after the holidays was lower for those with greater evening preference, whereas for those at the other school, growth was greater for those with greater evening preference. The increase in average weight from pre- to post-holidays was greater for those attending the school with limited opportunities to sleep longer. Participants reported greater food intake during the holidays compared to school days and greater physical activity levels on weekends compared to school days, and school days compared to holidays. Results suggest that time of day preference may impact growth, with evening types who cannot sleep in growing at a slower rate than evening types who can or morning types. This may be related to sleep restriction. Despite sleep being both later and longer during the school holidays, participants' growth slowed during the holiday period. It is possible that this may be a reflection of other behavioural changes in the holidays (increased food intake and reduced physical activity), as sleep timing during the school period was related to growth.
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