The Impact of Psychological Gender, Gender-Related Perceptions, Significant Others, and the Introducer of Technology Upon Computer Anxiety in Students

Mark J. Brosnan
Journal of Educational Computing Research, Vol 18 No 1, 1998, p. 63-78

The gender-related effects of masculinity, femininity, and perceiving technology to be masculinized upon computer anxiety in undergraduates is investigated in addition to the effect of significant others who use computers and the introducer of the technology. The results demonstrate a sex difference, females reporting higher levels of computer anxiety than males. For females, computer anxiety negatively correlated with masculinity, while femininity positively correlated with computer anxiety for males. Sixty-four percent of females agreed that computing was a male activity and that men were better at computing than women. Females who agreed with this latter statement were significantly less computer anxious than females who did not agree with this statement. Additionally, over 40 percent of the variance in female computer anxiety was accounted for by age and having a male friend who used a computer, suggesting that females use males for computer-related support as a strategy to reduce anxiety.

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