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Columnist's use of AAUW stats inaccurate

After reading Kate Epstein's column ("`I'll have what she's having': The joys of eager young cousins," 2/19/96), I am struck by how readily she uses data to support her point by only selectively reporting the facts. She states: "According to a ... report of the AAUW, less than a third of girls in high school ... strongly agree with the statement, `I am happy the way I am,' compared with nearly half the boys." While this is true, she conveniently forgets to tell the whole story.

Specifically, that respondants to the above mentioned study were given five possible replies to "I am happy the way I am." They were: "always true," "sort of true," "sometimes true/sometimes false," "sort of false" and "always false."

When the total number of students responding with one of the first three answers are added up, the numbers come out a lot less convincing -- 88 percent of girls, compared to 92 percent of boys.

Since only the last two responses actually constitute a problematic level of self-esteem (who really feels good about themselves all the time?), it appears that this data fails to support any conclusion about a significant "gender gap" in the self-esteem of high school boys and girls.

Next time Epstein wishes to quote hard data to support her views, I suggest she take the time to read all the results.

SOL DERROW