Sexual Identification and the Maturing Vocational Interests of Pre‐adolescent Girls

Abstract

Les études portant sur l'organisation des aspirations ont régulièrement conclu à des différences persistantes entre les hommes et les femmes, et cela indépendamment de l‘âge, du pays et de l'identité linguistique ou culturelle. Toutefois, ces différences ont pu être atténuées dans bien des pays par l'ouverture aux femmes ces dernières décennies de professions traditionnellement non féminines. Pour traiter cette question, 295 lycéennes et 297 lycéens québecois des niveaux 5 à 11 ont d'abord été confrontés aux 102 diapositives en couleur du “Visual Interest Test” (V.I.T.), un inventaire non verbal qui présente des travailleurs des deux sexes réalisant des tâches professionnelles concrètes et qui mesure des traits correspondant étroitement aux types RIASEC de Holland. On leur a immédiatement après montré 48 autres diapositives, identiques à 48 des diapositives du V.I.T. sinon que le sexe des personnages avait été inversé. Les filles ont choisi le modèle féminin dans 25 des 35 différences significatives (à 0.05) tandis que les gançons se portaient sur le modéle masculin 18 fois sur 29 dans les mêmes conditions. Les structures d'intirêts des lycéens sont dans la ligne des différences traditionnelles liées au sexe, avec une exception remarquable, celle des scores significativement plus forts obtenus par les filles du niveau 11 à l’échelle d'esprit d'entreprise, résultat en aceord avec des observations analogues tirées du V.I.T. sur d'autres éehantillons de lycéennes des deux Amériques parlant français, anglais, espagnol ou portugais. Regardless of age, country, linguistic or cultural affiliation, studies of vocational interest patterns have consistently shown marked differences between women and men. However, the greater accessibility of women to non‐traditional occupations in many countries over the last few decades may have resulted in a lessening of those differences. To address this question, 295 female and 297 male students from grades 5 to 11 in Quebec, Canada, were first presented with the 102 regular colour slides of the Visual Interest Test (V.I.T.), a non‐verbal inventory showing workers of both sexes performing real‐life occupational tasks and measuring traits which closely correspond to Holland's RIASEC types. They were then immediately exposed to 48 additional slides identical to 48 of the regular V.I.T. slides, save for the sex of the characters which is reversed. The results show that the girls chose the female model in 25 out of 35 significant (p à 0.05) sex‐model differences, whereas the boys chose the male model in 18 out of 29 such differences. Analyses of the students' interest patterns reveal traditional sex differences, with the notable exception of the significantly higher scores obtained by the 11 th‐grade girls for the Enterprising scale, a result which is in keeping with similar observations made with the V.I.T. for other samples of French, English. Spanish and Portuguese‐speaking high school female students in both North and South America.

Cross-cultural structural equivalence of RIASEC models and measures.

“…Only Trapnell's (1989) RIASEC matrix based on a U.S. edition of the VPI had a correspondence index of .71 that exceeded the 99% lower bound confidence interval of the U.S. benchmark. The relatively poor fit ( M = .38) for the Canadian sample is due to six matrices ( M = .29) based on the Visual Interest Test (VIT; Tétreau & Trahan, 1986). The VIT is composed of 15 color slides for each Holland RIASEC type, showing workers performing occupational tasks.…”

“…A third category exported Holland's U.S. theory by developing a new RIASEC measure that is more appropriate for the different culture. Four examples were found: (a) Vocational Interest Survey constructed to assess Holland's RIASEC types in Australia; (b) Coimbra Experimental Interest Inventory (CEII; Ferreira, 1989/1990), a Portuguese language measure; (c) Visual Interest Test (VIT; Tétreau & Trahan, 1986, 1989, 1992) with instructions in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish; and (d) Inventaire Personnel de J. L. Holland (Dupont, 1979), a French-language RIASEC measure that Holland and Gottfredson (1990) described as a “forerunner of the SDS” (p. 3). These theory-driven inventories accounted for 22 matrices.…”

“…The book entitled Holland in Australia (Lokan & Taylor, 1986) presents a series of studies investigating the applicability of Holland's theory and measures to Australia and New Zealand. Instead of translating or adapting U.S. RIASEC inventories, researchers in Australia (Athanasou, 1986a), France (Dupont, 1979), and Canada (Tétreau & Trahan, 1986, 1989, 1992) have developed new measures based on Holland's RIASEC model.…”