The Gender Gap In Youth Attitudes On Animal Research

Secondary analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth is used to examine youth’s attitudes toward the use of animals in scientific research, including a number of differentiating factors such as gender, age, scientific literacy, and science achievement.

This research study is a secondary analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, 1987-1994, a probability sample of 52 middle schools and 51 high schools throughout the US, and attempts to identify factors related to gender and the opposition of animal used in research.

This analysis shows that gender had the greatest total effect on opposition to animal research, while feminist attitudes had the second greatest total effect.

It was also likely that individuals with higher levels of science knowledge were less likely to oppose animal research.

Being female was positively associated with feminist attitudes, which were in tern positively associated with opposition to animal research, meaning that the relationship between gender and opposition to animal research is explained by the inclination of adolescent females to be more pro-feminist than adolescent males.

Early science achievement was positively related to young adult attitudes toward organized science, which was in turn negatively related to opposition to animal research. Young women were slightly higher educated than young men.

Early parental influences were also found to play a role in explaining gender differences in attitudes toward animal research.

Parents were less likely to encourage daughters in science and to provide home science resources for them. Individuals who received parental encouragement in science while in high school were less likely to oppose animal research as young adults.