Girls' math performance under stereotype threat: the moderating role of mothers' gender stereotypes

Previous research on stereotype threat in children suggests that making gender identity salient disrupts girls' math performance at as early as 5 to 7 years of age. The present study (n = 124) tested the hypothesis that parents' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderates girls' susceptibility to stereotype threat. Results confirmed that stereotype threat impaired girls' performance on math tasks among students from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Moreover, mothers' but not fathers' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderated girls' vulnerability to stereotype threat: performance of girls whose mothers strongly rejected the gender stereotype about math did not decrease under stereotype threat. These findings are important because they point to the role of mothers' beliefs in the development of girls' vulnerability to the negative effects of gender stereotypes about math.     

Awareness of a gender stereotype,personal beliefs and self-perceptions regarding math ability: when boys do not surpass girls

The negative reputation of women in mathematics and its consequences on their self-perceptions have been extensively demonstrated. However, in France and other countries, the younger the students, the less pronounced these gender differences are. The focus of this study was to explore whether children of two age groups (fourth graders and seventh graders) are aware of a math-ability gender stereotype favorable to boys, and to determine their personal beliefs on mathematics ability. The link between this gender stereotype and self-perceptions was also examined. As expected, there was not a clear-cut awareness of a math-ability gender stereotype favorable to boys. More surprising, girls in both age groups and seventh-grade boys believed that girls do better than boys. Moreover, when their gender identity was made salient, the boys who believed in girl superiority perceived their own performance in mathematics as lower. The girls, on the other hand, regardless of their age and stereotype awareness or personal beliefs, perceived their performance in math as higher when their gender identity was made salient than when it was not.     

Solo status, stereotype threat, and performance expectancies: Their effects on women’s performance

Women working in male-dominated environments may find themselves to be the only woman present, and that negative stereotypes about women persist in the environment. This experiment tested women’s performance in solo status (SS: being the only woman present) and under stereotype threat (ST: when women are stereotyped as poor performers). White male and female participants (157) learned information, then tested on it in an opposite-gender (SS) or same-gender group (nonsolo). In addition, the information was described as being traditional math material (ST) or a type of math information impervious to gender stereotypes (no threat). Women performed more poorly in SS than nonsolos, and under ST than no threat. Experiencing both factors was more detrimental to women’s performance than experiencing one or the other. Men’s performance was the same across all conditions. Performance expectancies partially mediated the effect of SS, but not ST, on performance.     

Does my daughter like math? Relations between parent and child math attitudes and beliefs

As early as age six, girls report higher math anxiety than boys, and children of both genders begin to endorse the stereotype that males are better at math than females. However, very few studies have examined the emergence of math attitudes in childhood, or the role parents may play in their transmission. The present study is the first to investigate the concordance of multiple implicit and explicit math attitudes and beliefs between 6- and 10-year-old children and their parents. Data from implicit association tasks (IATs) reveal that both parents and their children have implicit associations between math and difficulty, but only parents significantly associated math with males. Notably, males (fathers and sons) were more likely than females (mothers and daughters) to identify as someone who likes math (instead of reading), suggesting gender differences in academic preferences emerge early and remain consistent throughout adulthood. Critically, we provide the first evidence that both mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes about math relate to a range of math attitudes and beliefs held by their children, particularly their daughters. Results suggest that girls may be especially sensitive to parental math attitudes and beliefs. Together, data indicate that children entering formal school already show some negative math attitudes and beliefs and that parents’ math attitudes may have a disproportionate impact on young girls.     

Predictors of Young Adolescents’ Math Grades and Course Enrollment Intentions: Gender Similarities and Differences

Gender differences and similarities in the relations of key constructs in Eccles and colleagues (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) model of achievement were examined as predictors of math grades and enrollment intentions for Grade 9 boys (n = 263) and girls (n = 277). A number of gender similarities were found, particularly in the prediction of math grades. There were, however, two gender-specific paths: for girls, a direct path from competence beliefs to enrollment intentions, and for boys, a direct path from prior math grades to enrollment intentions. In addition, for boys, the path from utility value to enrollment intentions was stronger than it was for girls. These differential predictive patterns were found even though girls and boys reported similar levels of math utility and girls had lower math competence beliefs. For girls, competence beliefs were a significant predictor of both intentions and current math grades, which indicates the central role of competence beliefs.     

Do performance avoidance goals moderate the effect of different types of stereotype threat on women’s math performance?

Stereotype threat is considered to be a robust effect that explains persistent gender gaps in math performance and scientific career trajectories. Some evidence suggests stereotype threat effects are buffered by adoption of performance avoidance goals (Chalabaev, Major, Sarrazin, & Cury, 2012). With 590 American female participants, we closely replicated Chalabaev et al. (2012). Results showed no significant main or interaction effects for stereotype threat or performance avoidance goals, despite multiple controls. We conclude that effects of stereotype threat might be smaller than typically reported and find limited evidence for moderation by avoidance achievement goals. Accordingly, stereotype threat might not be a major part of the explanation for the gender gap in math performance, consistent with recent meta-analyses (Flore & Wicherts, 2015).     

Implicit stereotypes and women’s math performance: How implicit gender-math stereotypes influence women’s susceptibility to stereotype threat

This experiment examined the effects of implicit gender-math stereotyping and implicit gender and math identification on women’s math performance under stereotype threat and reduced threat conditions. Results showed that of the three, only implicit gender-math stereotyping moderated stereotype threat effects on women’s math performance: women who showed less implicit math-gender stereotyping showed the largest performance difference across experimental conditions. These results suggest that women’s implicit associations between gender and math interact with situational cues to influence their math performance: women who implicitly associate women more than men with mathematics were most benefited by reduction of stereotype salience during testing.     

When do Gender Stereotypes Impair Math Performance? A Study of Stereotype Threat Among Ugandan Adolescents

The present study examined the effect of gender-based stereotype threat (ST) on the mathematics performance of high school students in Uganda, East Africa, as moderated by students’ stereotype endorsement and/or their perceptions of stereotypic expectancies by others. Participants were 190 ninth grade students (age 14–15, senior 2, in Uganda) from all-female and coed boarding schools. Only perceived stereotypic expectancies by others significantly moderated ST effects on performance. A reminder of cross-gender comparisons led both young women and young men to underperform if they assumed that the researchers expected their own gender to do worse than the other gender. Importantly, students’ perceptions of the stereotypic expectancies of authority figures (i.e. researchers) mattered more for predicting their math performance than did students’ own endorsement of stereotypes. Collectively, these findings support a basic assumption of ST theory– that knowledge of a cultural stereotype is a prerequisite to the ST experience. Therefore, studies conducted with younger samples and in diverse cultural contexts should establish participants’ awareness of the stereotype in question. Also, regarding gender and math stereotypes, it should not be assumed that males will always be immune from stereotype-based performance deficits on quantitative tasks when tested in different cultures. Finally, results suggest that conveying an expectation that young men and young women have equal ability and potential might be important to preventing ST among younger age groups.     

Do Parents’ Academic Gender Stereotypes Influence Whether They Intrude on their Children’s Homework?

In this study, we explored the possibility that when parents endorse particular academic gender stereotypes (e.g., boys are better at math, girls are better at English) they are more likely to engage in uninvited intrusions with homework, intrusions which then undermine children’s confidence in these domains. Participants included 38 fifth to eighth grade students (mean age = 12.16 years, 60% girls, 87% White) and their mothers and fathers. The findings indicated that even though boys received more parental intrusive support with homework, girls were more sensitive to these intrusions, specifically when they involved math. Parents’ intrusive support mediated the relationship between parents’ math-related gender stereotypes and girls’ math ability perceptions, which suggests that these behaviors communicate to girls their parents’ math stereotype beliefs.     

When stereotypes disadvantage boys: Strength of stereotypes in mathematics and language arts and their relations with grades

There is growing concern about boys' lagging performance in school, not only in language arts, where the gap is particularly pronounced, but also in mathematics. Stereotypes associating one gender with language arts or with mathematics are likely to contribute to these gaps. Such stereotypes can translate into explicit beliefs such as the extent to which students are aware of societal stereotypes or the extent to which they personally believe stereotypes to be true, but also indirectly into performance following a stereotype threat manipulation. However, few studies have considered these multiple stereotype expressions in both mathematics and language arts to examine their importance in predicting boys' and girls' actual grades in school. To fill this gap, two complementary studies examined high school boys' and girls' awareness and endorsement of stereotypes about both language arts (n = 299) and mathematics (n = 243), as well as whether stereotype threat impaired boys' performance on a spelling test. Although the effect of stereotype threat was not significant overall, our results showed that students were aware of and endorsed strong stereotypes advantaging girls in language arts. In mathematics, students endorsed counter-traditional stereotypes slightly advantaging girls. Our results also showed that these multiple expressions of stereotypes related to students' grades. In doing so, our work provides insights regarding possible targets for interventions to reduce gender gaps disadvantaging boys in school.     

Mental-rotation performance in middle and high-school age: influence of stimulus material,gender stereotype beliefs,and perceived ability of gendered activities

ABSTRACT

In psychometric mental-rotation tests, males mostly outperform females. The stimulus material and stereotype beliefs could partly be responsible for these differences. This was investigated in an experimental study administering traditional cube figures (C-MRT) and structurally similar pellet figures (P-MRT) to middle- and high-school aged children. 168 participants either solved the C-MRT or the P-MRT and filled out a questionnaire about their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine and feminine activities and about their gender stereotype beliefs. Overall, boys outperformed girls and all children who solved the C-MRT were better than those who solved the P-MRT. Only boys' mental-rotation performance increased with age while girls' perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities decreased. A regression analysis identified children’s gender, their perceived ability of stereotypically masculine activities and their female gender stereotype beliefs as predictors of mental-rotation performance. Results are discussed with a focus on stereotype threat effects and gender differences in mental-rotation strategies.     

The perils of double consciousness: The role of thought suppression in stereotype threat

The goal of the present research is to demonstrate, and then alleviate, the role of thought suppression in depressing women’s math performance under stereotype threat. We hypothesize that when taking a math test, women (but not men) attempt to suppress thoughts of the math-related gender stereotype. Suppression leads to underperformance when it uses up cognitive resources. In Study 1, women underperform on a math test and show postsuppressional rebound of the stereotype when cognitive resources are reduced. In Study 2, women suppress the stereotype after a math test begins, but show rebound when the test is complete. In Study 3, making the stereotype irrelevant to the test improves performance and reduces postsuppressional rebound. In Studies 4 and 5, we test a strategy women can use to make suppression easier, and show that it restores math performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Children's Gender Stereotypes About Math: The Role of Stereotype Stratification1

Women underperform on standardized math tests compared to men. However, girls perform as well if not better than boys in math. In this paper, it is proposed that this discrepancy may be explained in part by a process of stereotype stratification, in which targets of a negative in‐group stereotype view themselves as a member of a subgroup to which the stereotype does not apply. Two experiments with elementary‐school children provide support for this theory. In Study 1, girls placed advanced math pictures with males more often than basic math pictures. In addition, girls rated men as liking and as being better at math than women, but viewed boys and girls as being equal on these variables. In Study 2, girls were more likely to draw a man when told a story about an adult mathematician, but were more likely to draw a girl when told of a child mathematician. The social and educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

French Children’s Awareness of Gender Stereotypes About Mathematics and Reading: When Girls Improve Their Reputation in Math

Since 2000, surveys on academic achievement show gender inequalities in favor of girls in the school setting. The aim of the present study was to examine if gender stereotypes about academic abilities that are usually considered as fully demonstrated in the literature have to be updated. Three hundred ninety-eight French fifth graders from a medium-sized provincial town answered a questionnaire designed to examine, both with direct and indirect measures, if they hold different gender stereotypes concerning mathematics and reading depending on target’s age (children vs. adults). As expected, results showed that participants, regardless of their gender, were aware of a math-ability stereotype favorable to men when the stereotyped targets were adults. When the stereotyped targets were children and young adolescents, the math-ability stereotype was less clear. Participants believed that people think that girls succeed as well as boys in math. Concerning reading-ability, participants reported the “usual” stereotype favorable to females, regardless of the stereotyped target’s age (child or adult). Together these results suggest that academic gender stereotypes have to be reconsidered. The math-ability stereotype targeting children and favorable to both genders seems to show an improvement of the French girls’ reputation in mathematics. Moreover, the reputation of French boys in this domain seems to be poorer than reported in previous research.     

Children’s implicit and explicit gender stereotypes about mathematics and reading ability

Study objectives were to clarify children’s gender-based implicit and explicit mathematics and reading stereotypes, and to determine if implicit and explicit measures were related or represented distinct constructs. One hundred and fifty-six boys and girls (mean age 11.3 years) from six elementary schools completed math or reading stereotype measures. Results for the implicit measures showed that children believed their own gender was superior in mathematics ability, and that girls but not boys believed that girls were better in reading. Explicit measures revealed that girls but not boys believed they were superior at math, and that girls and boys believed girls were better readers than boys. Implicit and explicit measures were not related. Results are discussed in relation to previous studies on children’s mathematics and reading gender stereotypes and large scale tests of mathematics and reading achievement. Educational and research implications are discussed.     

Stereotype endorsement and perceived ability as mediators of the girls' gender orientation–soccer performance relationship

ObjectiveThis study investigated girls' endorsement of the stereotype that girls are not good soccer performers through three questions: (1) did stereotype endorsement predict soccer performance? (2) Was this relationship mediated by perceived ability? (3) Was stereotype endorsement related to gender role orientation?MethodOne hundred and two junior high school girls from the 6th to the 9th grade (M age = 13.5 years, SD = 1.23) reported their beliefs about girls' and boys' performance in soccer, perceived ability and gender role orientation. Next, their soccer performance was observed during matches in compulsory physical education classes. A path-analytic model tested the relationships among the variables using a product-moment correlation matrix and a maximum likelihood estimation procedure.ResultsStereotype endorsement (i.e., the belief that girls' performance in soccer is poor) negatively predicted performance, this relationship being mediated by perceived ability. Moreover, masculinity positively predicted perceived ability, and this relationship was partially mediated by stereotype endorsement.ConclusionThis study reinforces the idea that girls' sports performance may be related to gender stereotypes. Interpretations of the results in light of Eccles et al.’s expectancy-value model and stereotype threat theory are discussed, along with implications for practice.     

Stereotype threat and working memory: mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover

Stereotype threat (ST) occurs when the awareness of a negative stereotype about a social group in a particular domain produces suboptimal performance by members of that group. Although ST has been repeatedly demonstrated, far less is known about how its effects are realized. Using mathematical problem solving as a test bed, the authors demonstrate in 5 experiments that ST harms math problems that rely heavily on working memory resources--especially phonological aspects of this system. Moreover, by capitalizing on an understanding of the cognitive mechanisms by which ST exerts its impact, the authors show (a) how ST can be alleviated (e.g., by heavily practicing once-susceptible math problems such that they are retrieved directly from long-term memory rather than computed via a working-memory-intensive algorithm) and (b) when it will spill over onto subsequent tasks unrelated to the stereotype in question but dependent on the same cognitive resources that stereotype threat also uses. The current work extends the knowledge of the causal mechanisms of stereotype threat and demonstrates how its effects can be attenuated and propagated.     

A League of Their Own: Do Single-Sex Schools Increase Girls�� Participation in the Physical Sciences?

With the rapid shifts in the education of women in the United States, and the underrepresentation of women in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an issue generating much controversy is whether women may benefit more from single-sex education or coeducation. The present study surveyed 548 U.S. high-school boys and girls from single-sex and coeducational high-schools from the Midwest. Half of the participants completed a mathematics test under stereotype threat (ST) condition and half under no threat condition. Although girls in single-sex schools had higher achievement motive and self-esteem than those in coeducational schools, they were not more likely to pursue STEM careers. Overall, students in single-sex schools outperformed students from coeducational schools on the math test. Girls?? math performance was significantly higher in the ST condition than in the no threat condition.     

The many faces of stereotype threat: Group- and self-threat

Contending with negative intellectual stereotypes has been shown to depress the academic performance of targets of the stereotypes [Steele, C. M. (1997). A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. American Psychologist, 52, 613-629]. The present paper examines whether women’s mathematics performance is differentially affected by the concern of confirming that a negative stereotype is true of the self (self-threat), than by the concern of confirming that the stereotype is true of their gender (group-threat). In two studies we independently manipulated these different threats for women taking a mathematics test. Gender identification moderated the effect of group-threats on test performance; only women highly identified with their gender underperformed. The performance of less gender-identified women was unaffected by group-threats. In contrast, gender identification did not moderate the effect of self-threats—both high- and low-identified women underperformed. The results of these studies suggest that women’s math performance is differentially affected by the source of the threat.