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4 <TITLE>Edequity On Line: Women Feeling More Stress in College</TITLE>
5 <META NAME="Author" CONTENT="AMcAuliffe (AMcAuliffe@edc.org)">
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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" -->
13 <!-- sent="Tue, 26 Jan 1999 08:56:18 -0500" -->
14 <!-- name="AMcAuliffe" -->
15 <!-- email="AMcAuliffe@edc.org" -->
16 <!-- subject="Women Feeling More Stress in College" -->
17 <!-- id="199901261505.KAA08372@phoenix.edc.org" -->
18 <!-- inreplyto="" -->
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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24 <P>
25 Forwarded from HECNews.
26 <BR>
27 <A HREF="mailto:AMcAuliffe@edc.org?subject=Re:%20Women%20Feeling%20More%20Stress%20in%20College">AMcAuliffe@edc.org</A>
28 <BR>
29 _____________________________________________________________________
30 <BR>
31 <P>Monday, January 25, 1999
32 <BR>
33 <P>Women Feeling More Stress in College
34 <BR>
35 <P>School: Freshmen say they are 'overwhelmed,' worry more than male
36 <BR>
37 counterparts, according to nationwide survey. Growing gender gap is linked
38 <BR>
39 in part to lifestyle differences.
40 <BR>
41 <P>By KENNETH R. WEISS, Times Education Writer
42 <BR>
43 rizwank 1.1 <P><P>Women have closed the gender gap in college enrollment, but another gap has
44 <BR>
45 widened: College women are working harder and feeling more stress while
46 <BR>
47 their male counterparts are having a good time.
48 <BR>
49 <P>In a nationwide survey of college freshmen to be released today, women are
50 <BR>
51 five times as likely to be anxious as men, reporting they frequently felt
52 <BR>
53 "overwhelmed by all I have to do."
54 <BR>
55 <P>These young women are smoking more than men. More of them say they
56 <BR>
57 frequently felt depressed in the last year, more are worried about paying
58 <BR>
59 for college and feel insecure about their physical and emotional health.
60 <BR>
61 <P>Gender differences in lifestyle seem to contribute to the growing stress
62 <BR>
63 gap. During the last year, teenage men spent considerably more time
64 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
65 exercising, partying, watching TV and playing video games, while women were
66 <BR>
67 juggling more household and child care chores, studying more and doing more
68 <BR>
69 volunteer work.
70 <BR>
71 <P>"Men are spending more time doing things that inherently can be more fun,"
72 <BR>
73 said Linda J. Sax, director of the 33rd annual survey, conducted by UCLA's
74 <BR>
75 Higher Education Research Institute.
76 <BR>
77 <P>"Meanwhile, these young women are taking on more and more responsibilities
78 <BR>
79 and feel stressed by all they have to do."
80 <BR>
81 <P>Survey founder Alexander W. Astin calls the stress gap, which began widening in
82 <BR>
83 the mid-1980s, "one of the ironies of the women's movement."
84 <BR>
85 rizwank 1.1 <P>"It's an inevitable consequence of women adding more commitments and
86 <BR>
87 responsibilities on top of all the other things they have to cope with," he
88 <BR>
89 said.
90 <BR>
91 <P>Astin, who has tracked shifting student attitudes for 35 years, notes that
92 <BR>
93 college students are experiencing an early version of the stress that
94 <BR>
95 "super-moms" feel later in life--pursuing a career, maintaining a household
96 <BR>
97 and raising kids.
98 <BR>
99 <P>Pretty soon, he predicted, life insurance tables will start changing, too.
100 <BR>
101 Now, women live on average several years longer than men, a fact that some
102 <BR>
103 experts have attributed to lower stress levels among women.
104 <BR>
105 <P>If all that isn't enough, here's another producer of anxiety, at least for
106 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
107 those women interested in the dating scene: Women make up nearly 56% of
108 <BR>
109 college enrollment and the female majority is expected to grow over the next
110 <BR>
111 decade.
112 <BR>
113 <P>A group of freshmen at UCLA said the survey results seemed pretty much on
114 <BR>
115 target. Some of the women said they often feel overwhelmed: They "stressed"
116 <BR>
117 about getting into UCLA. Then they felt stressed about whether attending
118 <BR>
119 UCLA was their best option. Now, they're worried about making new
120 <BR>
121 friends--and even which classes to take.
122 <BR>
123 <P>To hear Jessica Wolf tell it, time is already running short at age 18. With
124 <BR>
125 one term behind her, she needs to hurry up and declare an academic major.
126 <BR>
127 rizwank 1.1 "There is more pressure to succeed and be more than a mother and homemaker," she
128 <BR>
129 said. "By the time I finally get to a point in my career where I'm a success,
130 <BR>
131 I'll have to stop work to start a family. So I need to know what I'm doing now."
132 <BR>
133 <P>The annual American Freshman Survey, the nation's oldest and most
134 <BR>
135 comprehensive assessment of student behavior and attitudes, canvassed
136 <BR>
137 383,815 of the 1.6 million first-year students at colleges and universities
138 <BR>
139 in the United States.
140 <BR>
141 <P>Nearly 71% of women were at least somewhat concerned about financing their
142 <BR>
143 college education, compared to 58.5% of men. About 16.5% of women said they
144 <BR>
145 smoked frequently within the last year, compared to about 15% of men. Nearly 11%
146 <BR>
147 of women reported that they frequently felt depressed, compared to 7.3% of men.
148 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
149 <P>About 38% of women reported they frequently "felt overwhelmed" with all they had
150 <BR>
151 to do, compared to a mere 7.3% of men. Comparing their emotional health with
152 <BR>
153 their peers, 58.2% of men considered themselves above average or in the top 10%
154 <BR>
155 for people their age. Only 47.5% of women considered themselves above average or
156 <BR>
157 better.
158 <BR>
159 <P>Men were also far more sure about their physical health, with nearly 65%
160 <BR>
161 ranking themselves above average or in the top 10% of their peers. Only
162 <BR>
163 about 46% of women had such confidence.
164 <BR>
165 <P>"Body image is a huge part of it," said freshman Tara Firenzi, a blue-eyed,
166 <BR>
167 blond-haired dancer. "I've been stressed out since I got to UCLA. You just
168 <BR>
169 rizwank 1.1 look around and say, 'Jeez, she's a size 2.' "
170 <BR>
171 <P>Survey director Sax said she and other college officials worry about such
172 <BR>
173 insecurities. "Women often express less confidence in their abilities, even
174 <BR>
175 though their performance is often better than men."
176 <BR>
177 <P>To be sure, young women may be more likely than young men to own up to
178 <BR>
179 feelings of stress or depression. But unless female teenagers have become
180 <BR>
181 more forthcoming--or males less so--the difference in their willingness to
182 <BR>
183 discuss their feelings would not account for the widening of the stress gap
184 <BR>
185 over the last decade.
186 <BR>
187 <P>The survey also revealed other trends, including its first snapshot of the
188 <BR>
189 remarkable number of students using the Internet.
190 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
191 <P>A whopping 82.9% of freshmen said they use the Internet for research or
192 <BR>
193 homework, and nearly two-thirds communicate via e-mail, the survey showed.
194 <BR>
195 About four out of five freshmen play computer games, and a little more than
196 <BR>
197 half regularly join in online discussions in chat rooms.
198 <BR>
199 <P>"Part of what I was looking forward to in college was the Internet network,"
200 <BR>
201 said Rizwan Kassim, a self-professed computer junkie living in a UCLA freshman
202 <BR>
203 dorm. "I have no intention of leaving here until I can secure
204 <BR>
205 high-speed access off campus."
206 <BR>
207 <P>But Internet access is not equal for all students.
208 <BR>
209 <P>Although about 80% of students attending private universities use e-mail,
210 <BR>
211 rizwank 1.1 that figure falls to only about 41% at traditionally black colleges.
212 <BR>
213 <P>When comparing incoming freshmen who had used the Internet for homework or
214 <BR>
215 research at least once in the last year, however, the disparity between
216 <BR>
217 students from private universities and black colleges was much less
218 <BR>
219 pronounced. This suggests that students had Internet access in either their
220 <BR>
221 high schools or public libraries.
222 <BR>
223 <P>But such access seems to vary widely in the home, given the spread of
224 <BR>
225 students who reported frequent or occasional use of e-mail. Broken down by
226 <BR>
227 ethnicity, 79.3% of Asian American students reported at least occasional use of
228 <BR>
229 e-mail, compared to 68.3% of whites, 42.5% of African Americans, 51.7% of
230 <BR>
231 Mexican Americans and 65.2% of all other Latinos.
232 rizwank 1.1 <BR>
233 <P>As schools incorporate computers into their curriculum, Astin said,
234 <BR>
235 "colleges and universities should be aware of the different levels of
236 <BR>
237 computing experience among incoming freshmen."
238 <BR>
239 <P>Source: <A HREF="http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/ASECTION/t000007602.html">http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/ASECTION/t000007602.html</A>
240 <BR>
241 <P>------------------------------------------------------------
242 <BR>
243 Forwarded by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other
244 <BR>
245 Drug Prevention. For more information, see our website at
246 <BR>
247 <A HREF="http://www.edc.org/hec/">http://www.edc.org/hec/</A>
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