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4 <TITLE>Edequity On Line: Women Feeling More Stress in College</TITLE>
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9 <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Women Feeling More Stress in College</H1>
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12 <!-- received="Tue Jan 26 10:08:20 1999 EST" -->
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14 <!-- name="AMcAuliffe" -->
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16 <!-- subject="Women Feeling More Stress in College" -->
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19 <STRONG>AMcAuliffe</STRONG> (<A HREF="mailto:AMcAuliffe@edc.org?subject=Re:%20Women%20Feeling%20More%20Stress%20in%20College"><EM>AMcAuliffe@edc.org</EM></A>)<BR>
20 <EM>Tue, 26 Jan 1999 08:56:18 -0500</EM>
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35 Forwarded from HECNews.
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37 <A HREF="mailto:AMcAuliffe@edc.org?subject=Re:%20Women%20Feeling%20More%20Stress%20in%20College">AMcAuliffe@edc.org</A>
38 <BR>
39 _____________________________________________________________________
40 <BR>
41 <P>Monday, January 25, 1999
42 <BR>
43 rizwank 1.1 <P>Women Feeling More Stress in College
44 <BR>
45 <P>School: Freshmen say they are 'overwhelmed,' worry more than male
46 <BR>
47 counterparts, according to nationwide survey. Growing gender gap is linked
48 <BR>
49 in part to lifestyle differences.
50 <BR>
51 <P>By KENNETH R. WEISS, Times Education Writer
52 <BR>
53 <P><P>Women have closed the gender gap in college enrollment, but another gap has
54 <BR>
55 widened: College women are working harder and feeling more stress while
56 <BR>
57 their male counterparts are having a good time.
58 <BR>
59 <P>In a nationwide survey of college freshmen to be released today, women are
60 <BR>
61 five times as likely to be anxious as men, reporting they frequently felt
62 <BR>
63 "overwhelmed by all I have to do."
64 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
65 <P>These young women are smoking more than men. More of them say they
66 <BR>
67 frequently felt depressed in the last year, more are worried about paying
68 <BR>
69 for college and feel insecure about their physical and emotional health.
70 <BR>
71 <P>Gender differences in lifestyle seem to contribute to the growing stress
72 <BR>
73 gap. During the last year, teenage men spent considerably more time
74 <BR>
75 exercising, partying, watching TV and playing video games, while women were
76 <BR>
77 juggling more household and child care chores, studying more and doing more
78 <BR>
79 volunteer work.
80 <BR>
81 <P>"Men are spending more time doing things that inherently can be more fun,"
82 <BR>
83 said Linda J. Sax, director of the 33rd annual survey, conducted by UCLA's
84 <BR>
85 rizwank 1.1 Higher Education Research Institute.
86 <BR>
87 <P>"Meanwhile, these young women are taking on more and more responsibilities
88 <BR>
89 and feel stressed by all they have to do."
90 <BR>
91 <P>Survey founder Alexander W. Astin calls the stress gap, which began widening in
92 <BR>
93 the mid-1980s, "one of the ironies of the women's movement."
94 <BR>
95 <P>"It's an inevitable consequence of women adding more commitments and
96 <BR>
97 responsibilities on top of all the other things they have to cope with," he
98 <BR>
99 said.
100 <BR>
101 <P>Astin, who has tracked shifting student attitudes for 35 years, notes that
102 <BR>
103 college students are experiencing an early version of the stress that
104 <BR>
105 "super-moms" feel later in life--pursuing a career, maintaining a household
106 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
107 and raising kids.
108 <BR>
109 <P>Pretty soon, he predicted, life insurance tables will start changing, too.
110 <BR>
111 Now, women live on average several years longer than men, a fact that some
112 <BR>
113 experts have attributed to lower stress levels among women.
114 <BR>
115 <P>If all that isn't enough, here's another producer of anxiety, at least for
116 <BR>
117 those women interested in the dating scene: Women make up nearly 56% of
118 <BR>
119 college enrollment and the female majority is expected to grow over the next
120 <BR>
121 decade.
122 <BR>
123 <P>A group of freshmen at UCLA said the survey results seemed pretty much on
124 <BR>
125 target. Some of the women said they often feel overwhelmed: They "stressed"
126 <BR>
127 rizwank 1.1 about getting into UCLA. Then they felt stressed about whether attending
128 <BR>
129 UCLA was their best option. Now, they're worried about making new
130 <BR>
131 friends--and even which classes to take.
132 <BR>
133 <P>To hear Jessica Wolf tell it, time is already running short at age 18. With
134 <BR>
135 one term behind her, she needs to hurry up and declare an academic major.
136 <BR>
137 "There is more pressure to succeed and be more than a mother and homemaker," she
138 <BR>
139 said. "By the time I finally get to a point in my career where I'm a success,
140 <BR>
141 I'll have to stop work to start a family. So I need to know what I'm doing now."
142 <BR>
143 <P>The annual American Freshman Survey, the nation's oldest and most
144 <BR>
145 comprehensive assessment of student behavior and attitudes, canvassed
146 <BR>
147 383,815 of the 1.6 million first-year students at colleges and universities
148 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
149 in the United States.
150 <BR>
151 <P>Nearly 71% of women were at least somewhat concerned about financing their
152 <BR>
153 college education, compared to 58.5% of men. About 16.5% of women said they
154 <BR>
155 smoked frequently within the last year, compared to about 15% of men. Nearly 11%
156 <BR>
157 of women reported that they frequently felt depressed, compared to 7.3% of men.
158 <BR>
159 <P>About 38% of women reported they frequently "felt overwhelmed" with all they had
160 <BR>
161 to do, compared to a mere 7.3% of men. Comparing their emotional health with
162 <BR>
163 their peers, 58.2% of men considered themselves above average or in the top 10%
164 <BR>
165 for people their age. Only 47.5% of women considered themselves above average or
166 <BR>
167 better.
168 <BR>
169 rizwank 1.1 <P>Men were also far more sure about their physical health, with nearly 65%
170 <BR>
171 ranking themselves above average or in the top 10% of their peers. Only
172 <BR>
173 about 46% of women had such confidence.
174 <BR>
175 <P>"Body image is a huge part of it," said freshman Tara Firenzi, a blue-eyed,
176 <BR>
177 blond-haired dancer. "I've been stressed out since I got to UCLA. You just
178 <BR>
179 look around and say, 'Jeez, she's a size 2.' "
180 <BR>
181 <P>Survey director Sax said she and other college officials worry about such
182 <BR>
183 insecurities. "Women often express less confidence in their abilities, even
184 <BR>
185 though their performance is often better than men."
186 <BR>
187 <P>To be sure, young women may be more likely than young men to own up to
188 <BR>
189 feelings of stress or depression. But unless female teenagers have become
190 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
191 more forthcoming--or males less so--the difference in their willingness to
192 <BR>
193 discuss their feelings would not account for the widening of the stress gap
194 <BR>
195 over the last decade.
196 <BR>
197 <P>The survey also revealed other trends, including its first snapshot of the
198 <BR>
199 remarkable number of students using the Internet.
200 <BR>
201 <P>A whopping 82.9% of freshmen said they use the Internet for research or
202 <BR>
203 homework, and nearly two-thirds communicate via e-mail, the survey showed.
204 <BR>
205 About four out of five freshmen play computer games, and a little more than
206 <BR>
207 half regularly join in online discussions in chat rooms.
208 <BR>
209 <P>"Part of what I was looking forward to in college was the Internet network,"
210 <BR>
211 rizwank 1.1 said Rizwan Kassim, a self-professed computer junkie living in a UCLA freshman
212 <BR>
213 dorm. "I have no intention of leaving here until I can secure
214 <BR>
215 high-speed access off campus."
216 <BR>
217 <P>But Internet access is not equal for all students.
218 <BR>
219 <P>Although about 80% of students attending private universities use e-mail,
220 <BR>
221 that figure falls to only about 41% at traditionally black colleges.
222 <BR>
223 <P>When comparing incoming freshmen who had used the Internet for homework or
224 <BR>
225 research at least once in the last year, however, the disparity between
226 <BR>
227 students from private universities and black colleges was much less
228 <BR>
229 pronounced. This suggests that students had Internet access in either their
230 <BR>
231 high schools or public libraries.
232 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
233 <P>But such access seems to vary widely in the home, given the spread of
234 <BR>
235 students who reported frequent or occasional use of e-mail. Broken down by
236 <BR>
237 ethnicity, 79.3% of Asian American students reported at least occasional use of
238 <BR>
239 e-mail, compared to 68.3% of whites, 42.5% of African Americans, 51.7% of
240 <BR>
241 Mexican Americans and 65.2% of all other Latinos.
242 <BR>
243 <P>As schools incorporate computers into their curriculum, Astin said,
244 <BR>
245 "colleges and universities should be aware of the different levels of
246 <BR>
247 computing experience among incoming freshmen."
248 <BR>
249 <P>Source: <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/ASECTION/t000007602.html">http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/ASECTION/t000007602.html</A>
250 <BR>
251 <P>------------------------------------------------------------
252 <BR>
253 rizwank 1.1 Forwarded by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other
254 <BR>
255 Drug Prevention. For more information, see our website at
256 <BR>
257 <A HREF="http://www.edc.org/hec/">http://www.edc.org/hec/</A>
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