The purposes of the present study were to explore how American college women view their roles and whether or not women who choose not-traditional-for-women (NTW) careers have more or less social support from significant others for that choice than women who choose traditional-for-women (TW) careers. A related question asked whether aspects of a woman's personal history predict her role attitudes and behavior as an adult.

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Discriminant function analysis was performed on data from 87 female volunteers who were between the ages of 21 and 53 years old and who had been married at least one time. Sixty-two of the subjects had no history of premarital pregnancy; 18 subjects had been pregnant when they married; and seven subjects had an induced abortion before marriage. All groups were discriminated (p < .05) by the variables of marital adjustment, lack of emotional vulnerability, masculinity, chance locus of control, powerful others locus of control, and number of marriages. Women with a history of premarital pregnancy were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and tended to have had more marriages; they also were higher on belief in chance, lower on belief in powerful others, lower on instrumentality and more lacking in emotional vulnerability than were women without history of premarital pregnancy. The two groups with history of premarital pregnancy were discriminated (p < .05) by marital adjustment and lack of emotional vulnerability. Women who married when pregnant were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and were more emotionally vulnerable than were women who had abortions prior to marriage.

This study describes certain characteristics of mature women students in a community college in a large metropolitan district. Three standardized instruments gathered data on self-actualization, self concept, and locus of control. A questionnaire collected demographic and education data as well as information on attitudes, motivations, problems encountered, and suggestions. The women perceived attitudes of their families as positive toward their education. They were motivated by desires to gain knowledge, get degrees, obtain promotions, and improve themselves. They cited themselves, long-time ambition, friends, and husbands as influential in motivating them to attend college. They selected this community college because of its convenience. The majority were married, had children, and were of the middle to upper-middle class. Over half were employed. Their average age was thirty-seven. They were active outside the home, although continuing to perform most traditionally feminine home responsibilities. The majority were part-time students, classified as freshmen. Education, business, nursing, accounting, and psychology were popular majors. Over half planned to obtain bachelor's degrees. Most felt they encountered no problems in pursuing their education; lack of sufficient time was their major complaint. Most were pleased with their community-college experience. their suggestions included special counseling, flexible class schedules, a club for mature students, and child care.

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The preponderance of females in the depressed population is a well established fact. Various hypotheses for this fact are reviewed and the hypothesis that females accepting the feminine role will be more likely to become depressed during their middle years than a more androgenous woman is submitted. To support this hypothesis a study was designed utilizing a Clinical group consisting of females, 35 to 50 experiencing depression and undergoing treatment for depression at one of three mental health centers and a Non-clinical group consisting of women, same age group, not experiencing depression and who had never undergone treatment for depression. Each subject was asked to complete a questionnaire to measure depression and femininity. Results of this study support the hypothesis that depression in middle-aged females is related to the degree of their acceptance of the traditional feminine role. Depression as defined and measured by Beck's Depression Inventory was positively correlated with femininity as measured by Bern's Sex-Role Inventory. The Pearson correlation coefficient for these two measures was .62 (p < .001), indicating that 38% of the variance in depression scores can be accounted for by the sex-role variable.

Forty-four pregnant women were examined to determine how individual differences in sex-role orientation, as assessed by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, were related to continued sexual interest, activity, and satisfaction in pregnancy. Subjects were further examined to determine the effects of sex-role identity upon third trimester anxiety levels as assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, upon physical experience of pregnancy, upon emotional response to pregnancy, and upon labor and delivery records. Subjects were examined periodically in the third trimester of pregnancy to determine current levels of functioning as well as to acquire retrospective prepregnancy and first and second trimester data. As predicted, androgynous women were found to demonstrate a significantly superior level of sexual adjustment throughout the pregnancy period, F (3, 38) = 3.132, p < .037. Levels of adjustment for masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated women were also found to be in the predicted direction. Androgynous women were further found to demonstrate a unique pattern of sexual response to pregnancy. Significant effects for stage of pregnancy were also found in terms of both sexual adjustment, F (4, 152) = 28.354, p < .0001, and physical response to pregnancy, F (4, 156) = 3.825, p < .005. Hypotheses regarding sex-role orientation and emotional response to pregnancy, anxiety levels in the thirst trimester, and labor and delivery records were not supported. Although scores in these areas were in the predicted direction, differences did not reach significant levels. The hypothesis concerning sex-role effects upon physical response to pregnancy was contradicted, but not to significant levels. Results are discussed in terms of Bem's conceptualizations of sex-role identities and previous findings of studies of sexual behavior in pregnancy. Findings regarding the familial origins of the different sex-role groups are also explored.

Vulnerability to Feminine Gender Role Stress (FGRS), defined as the tendency to evaluate the self along feminine dimensions, was introduced as a psychosocial mediator between environmental stressors and maladaptive outcomes to explain the higher rate of particular mental health problems among women relative to men. FGRS was proposed to result from 1) vulnerability, adherence to feminine standards for self-appraisal, and 2) exposure to environmental conditions which directly threaten or challenge one's ability to live up to these standards. Two studies investigated the FGRS construct. In Study 1, women who appraised threats and challenges to feminine commitments as highly stressful, rated feminine traits as more personally important to exhibit, than did women who did not appraise these situations as highly stressful. Additionally vulnerability to FGRS interacted with inadequate social support to predict depressive symptomatology in women. Study 2 compared subjects high and low in FGRS vulnerability in responses to a counseling task presented as either a feminine or gender-neutral stressor. When the task was presented as a feminine stressor, women whose scores on the FGRS scale indicated adherence to feminine self-evaluation criteria evidenced greater physical stress, and cognitive engagement, including attempts to cognitively reframe the situation in order to cope with it, than did women who did not show adherence to these criteria. Across stressors high FGRS subjects reported greater reliance than low FGRS subjects on feminine styles of coping, including providing and soliciting social support. These findings elucidate the processes underlying women's vulnerability to FGRS and contribute to the understanding of gender-role mediated psychopathology in women. / Ph. D.