GENDER AND DOUBTS ABOUT STUDY IN TECHNOLOGY - A DUTCH HUNGARIAN COMPARISON

A cross-cultural investigation of the doubts of male and female studen ts in technology about their academic programs was conducted. Data wer e gathered from 477 students of two universities, one in Hungary and t he other in the Netherlands. An exploratory model was developed, based on concepts from Eccles's (1987) model of educational choice acid Tin to's (1975) model of educational dropout. The expectation that female students and Hungarian students have more doubts, because of differenc es in reasons for doubt, was confirmed. Incongruency of study program and personal interests appeared to be a more important reason for doub t for Hungarian students than for Dutch students. Female students ment ioned difficulty-of study as a more important reason for doubt than ma le students did.