Some UF women could leave college with lower self-confidence than they had as freshmen.
Despite high academic achievement among most of the female students surveyed at Boston College, a weaker sense of self-esteem was reported, especially compared to many male students, including those with lower GPAs.
Some of the contributing factors to lower levels of self-confidence mentioned by the female students included pressure to have a perfect body image, hookup culture rather than commitment culture and finding roommates year-to-year.
Michael Murphy, a psychologist at UF’s Counseling & Wellness Center, said he thinks the study is relevant to colleges everywhere.
“One of the things that happens during the college years is that there’s a sense of developing that identity, and there’s a lot of pressure that goes along with that,” he said.
Murphy also said he thinks women are under an extra amount of scrutiny when it comes to their post-college plans.
“Women are expected to think of multiple things, and I would think that could be an especially daunting task, especially if it doesn’t look like you’re going to get the job you wanted, or if you’re not paired off with somebody,” Murphy said.
The study gathered information from a survey administered at freshman orientation and from a senior exit survey. Boston College’s Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Assessment was able to track specific students over the course of four years and see how their responses to questions like “What do you think of your academic achievement?” and “How would you rate your drive to succeed?” changed.
But Courtney McKenna said she doesn’t relate.
The 20-year-old UF telecommunication junior said she has used the social and academic pressures of college to her benefit.
“I feel like since freshman year, my confidence has grown more and more each year,” McKenna said. “I’m more confident as a person, as a student and what I want to do with my future.”
A version of this story ran on page 9 on 10/8/2013 under the headline "Women leave college less confident"
