Sex differences in children's attributions for success and failure on math and spelling tests

Sex differences in children's attributions for success and failure were tested on a group of 165 fifth and sixth graders taking a regularly scheduled math and spelling test in their classroom. Pretest questionnaires measured students' self-perceptions of competence in the subject and their performance expectations on the test. Questionnaires, given after the corrected tests were returned, assessed students' actual performance, subjective ratings of success, attributions for the cause of their success or failure, and performance expectations for future tests. Results indicated that sex differences existed in math but not in spelling: compared to girls, boys perceived themselves to be more competent and did better on the math test. Boys were also less likely to attribute failure on the math test to lack of ability and more likely to attribute success to ability than were girls.     

Sex differences in the relationship of height to children's actual and attributed social and cognitive competencies

In three studies, the relationship of children's height to both (a) adults' attributions regarding the children and (b) preschoolers' social and cognitive competencies were examined. Sex differences were consistent with stereotypic conceptions. In the first two studies, mothers of preschool children rated photographs of toddlers varying in height on a variety of social and cognitive abilities. The mothers also assigned punishment to the children for hypothetical transgressions. In Experiment 1, mothers rated the large boys as more competent than the average-sized and small boys (even when effects of mothers' perceptions of the children's ages were covaried). In Experiment 2, involving female stimuli, mothers rated small girls as being less able (especially less independent) than average-sized or tall girls. While the effect of height on mothers' attributions was still evident when the effects of perceived age of the children were covaried, the pattern of results was less clear. Mothers assigned more punishment to tall girls (but not tall boys) than to small girls regardless of perceptions of age. In Experiment 3, height was associated with boys', but not girls', competence on tasks of logical ability and boys' sociometric nominations of whom they prefer to play with (significant for girls, marginally significant for boys). Height was not highly correlated with peers' perceptions of competence. The implications of the research for the socialization process are discussed.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the parents, teachers, and children at the Child Study Laboratory, Students' Child Center, Palo Alto Preschools, and Tempe Preschool. The authors would also like to thank Michael Gunzelman, Michelle White, Julie Mankowski, Marsha Kaplan, and Melissa Rook for their able assistance in data collection.     

Sex differences in attributions and learned helplessness

This investigation assessed the hypothesis that girls are more likely to be learned helpless in math than boys. Students in grades 5 through 11 completed questionnaires assessing their causal attributions for success and failure in mathematics, their self-concepts of math ability, and their expectations for both current and future success in math. Results indicated that sex differences in attributions depended on the type of methodology used (open-ended or rank-ordered questions). The most consistent difference involved the differential use and ranking of ability, skills, and consistent effort. No sex differences were found in either students' perceptions of their own math ability or in their current achievement expectations. Girls, however, rated their future expectations slightly lower than did boys. Taken together, these results provide little support for the hypothesis that girls are generally more learned helpless in mathematics than are boys.     

Sex differences in attributions for the performance of women of a masculine task

Sex differences in the attributions of observers for the successful or unsuccessful behavior of a female actor performing a masculine task were studied. For the perceived causes of the outcome it was found that internal attributions were emphasized more for success than for failure. In addition, female observers attributed both types of outcome more to effort than did males. The nature of the outcome and the sex of the observer also affected the perceived personality traits of the actor. More positive traits were attributed to the successful than to the unsuccessful actor. The female observers attributed more instrumental traits to the actor than did the male observers. The results were discussed in terms of Jones and Davis's theory (1965) of correspondent inferences and the fact that competence was not viewed as being incompatible with femininity.     

Sex differences in math performance: The role of children's approach to schoolwork

This research examined whether the tendency for girls to outperform boys in the classroom is due to differences in how girls and boys approach schoolwork. In 5th grade and then again in 7th grade, children (N=518) reported on how they approach schoolwork (i.e., achievement goals and classroom behavior), their learning strategies, and their self-efficacy in math; math grades and achievement test scores were also collected. Girls were more likely than boys to hold mastery over performance goals and to refrain from disruptive classroom behavior, which predicted girls' greater effortful learning over time. The sex difference in learning strategies accounted for girls' edge over boys in terms of grades. Girls did not do better on achievement tests, possibly because self-efficacy, for which there was also no sex difference, was the central predictor of performance on achievement tests.     

Causal attributions and strategy use in relation to memory performance differences in younger and older adults

A metacognitive hypothesis to explain age differences in adult memory is explored here–that younger and older adults differ in beliefs about memory and strategic processing. The motivational beliefs that adults make for their own memory performances were examined across tests of recall, recognition, face–name learning, and appointment-keeping. Forty-eight older and 48 younger community-living adults were required to report the factors they believed influenced their performance and the memory strategies used for each task. A final questionnaire required subjects to rank order the importance of a list of causal factors. There were significantly more younger adults as compared to older adults who attributed performance to controllable factors (i.e. strategy use), although age differences in beliefs on a more familiar memory task were smaller than on other tasks. Moreover, within age groups, attributions to controllable factors were associated with increased memory performance compared to when memory was attributed to uncontrollable factors (i.e. ability, age). Believing that memory is uncontrollable may undermine the efficient use of effort in cognition, consistent with current metacognitive theory.     

Sex differences in attributions for sex-typed tasks1

Recent studies have indicated that males make more egotistical attributions than females, that is, males make more internal attributions for success and more external attributions for failure than females do. These sex differences in attributions were examined in terms of male/female differences in expectancies for success and ego-involvement in the tasks. Male and female subjects succeeded or failed on a masculine or a feminine task. It was found that males made more egotistical attributions than females on the masculine task, but females made more egotistical attributions than males on the feminine task. A covariance analysis revealed that these sex differences in attributions could be explained in terms of the differences between the males and females in expectancy for success and in ego-involvement. Finally, it was found that ego-involvement was a more important determinant of egotisical attributions in the present study than was expectancy.     

Sex differences in self-confidence: The influence of comparison to others' ability level

Previous investigators have suggested that women display lower self-confidence than men in almost all achievement settings. The validity of this suggestion is assessed in an experiment testing the impact of comparison to others upon sex differences. Male and female undergraduates, who expected to cooperate in the future with a same-sex partner of high, average, or low ability, selected a difficulty level for an achievement test, completed the test, evaluated their own performance, and estimated their future partner's probable performance. As predicted, only when subjects' future partner was highly competent did women select an easier test than men, perform less well, and compare themselves less favorably to their partner. Also, women's, but not men's, self-evaluations depended upon their partner's ability level. It is concluded that sex differences are moderated by social comparison variables. Cognitive processes that may underlie such differences are discussed.The authors wish to express their appreciation to Phoebe Ellsworth for her critical comments on this research, and to Pamela Joy, Tama Jacobson, and Thomas Hallet for serving as experimenters. Portions of this study were reported at the Eastern Psychological Association Convention, 1978.     

Sex and age variations in the quality and intensity of children's emotional attributions to hypothetical situations

Sex and age differences in the quality and intensity of children's emotional attributions to affect-laden stories were explored. Seventy-two 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children, with equal numbers of boys and girls of each age, were individually told 10 affect-laden stories. After each story, children were asked to indicate how they would feel as the story protagonist by pointing to angry, sad, happy, and scared faces, each of which had three degrees of intensity. The results revealed that boys attributed anger to themselves more frequently than did girls; girls attributed sadness and fear to themselves more frequently than did boys. Boys' first responses to the stories were more intensely angry and more intensely happy than were girls' first responses; and the intensity of both boys' and girls' emotional attributions decreased with age.This research was funded by a grant from the Graduate School of Boston University, #GRS-661-PS. The author expresses appreciation to the faculty and students of the Bartlett School, Lowell, Massachusetts, and to the Lowell-Lesley College Teacher Corps Project, especially to Allan Alson, John Cronin, and Edna Robinson. The author would also like to thank Shirley Brody, Emily Flynn, Benjamin Gozun, and Richard Simon for their help in various phases of this project.     

Sex differences in children's time use

A sample of children (410 on a school day and 347 on a non-school day) was examined to determine differences in time spent in household work, leisure activities, school, paid work, personal care, and sleep by males and females. Males spent more time in leisure activities and less time in household work and personal care than females. Differences in time allocation appeared to be in accordance with traditional male-female roles. These patterns were established at early ages.     

Sex differences in the naming of children's genitalia

Children's knowledge of human genital anatomy was examined retrospectively. Of the 223 adults who responded to a questionnaire on this subject, 39.8% of males and 29% of females learned correct anatomical names for male genitalia as children. In contrast, only 6.1% of females and 17.7% of males learned correct names for female genitalia. Most respondents learned either euphemisms or no names for female genitalia as children. Whereas male respondents acquired a complete vocabulary for male genitalia by a mean age of 11.5 years, female respondents did not complete their anatomical vocabulary for female genitalia until a mean age of 15.6 years. The importance of recognizing that children have erotic experiences and that they need a vocabulary for describing their feelings is discussed.     

Gender differences in attributions for triathlon performance

Causal attributions given by athletes for performance can influence performance satisfaction, expectation of future success, and persistence in training and competition. Young and inexperienced athletes often show gender differences in sport attribution, with males attributing success to controllable or stable factors like ability and effort, and females attributing success to uncontrollable or unstable factors like luck and social support. Would older, more experienced female triathletes also show a self-defeating attribution style and see themselves with little control over sport performance? Using questionnaires, 624 triathletes (mostly white, 443 males, 181 females) rated the importance of 13 attributions for triathlon performance. Unlike past research, female triathletes attributed more importance than males to factors they can attempt to control (psychological state, diet, and weight). After a recent success, female triathletes downplayed the importance of luck and social support.     

Sex differences in children's trust in peers

Children in kindergarten, second, and fourth grades were required to judge how much they trusted each of their peers (classmates). A same sex pattern of peer trust was found; boys trusted boys more than they trusted girls, and girls trusted girls more than they trusted boys. This pattern of peer trust was evident in fourth- and second-grade children but not in kindergarten children. It was proposed that the same sex pattern of trust serves to reinforce and maintain the same sex pattern of peer relationships in children.     

Kindergarten children's emotion competence as a predictor of their academic competence in first grade

This study examined the relation between emotion competence and academic competence and three potential mediators of this relation. In kindergarten, 193 children from elementary schools serving urban, minority, and low income students participated in an emotion competence assessment, and 142 of these children completed a follow-up assessment in first grade. The relation between teacher ratings of emotion regulation and academic competence was primarily indirect through the effect of emotion regulation on teacher ratings of attention. Peer acceptance and teacher closeness did not mediate the relations between emotion competence and academic competence. Results highlight the potential benefits of early emotion-centered prevention programs and the need to identify children with attention problems as early as possible to prevent academic difficulties.     

Sex differences in the relation between math performance, spatial skills, and attitudes

Sex differences have been previously found in cognitive and affective predictors of math achievement, including spatial skills and math attitudes. It is important to determine whether there are sex differences not only in the predictors themselves, but also in the nature of their relation to math achievement. The present paper examined spatial skills and math attitudes as predictors of curriculum-based measures of math performance in middle-school students, specifically comparing the patterns of these predictive relations for boys and girls. The results of the current study showed that, despite similar levels of math performance for boys and girls, the significance of particular predictors varied as a function of sex. Specifically, spatial skills predicted math performance in boys, but not in girls. We suggest that sex differences in spatial reasoning in conjunction with the differential involvement of spatial reasoning in math problem solving may lead to later sex differences in math outcomes.     

Sex differences in Group Embedded Figures Test performance in relation to sex-role,state and trait anxiety

The Group Embedded Figures Test of field dependence (GEFT) was administered to first-year psychology students who were then assigned to four sex-role classes depending on whether or not they exceeded median masculinity and femininity scores on the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Males achieved significantly higher GEFT scores but there were no significant sex-role effects. In a second study, other students were assigned to field dependent (DEP) and independent (INDEP) groups according to whether or not they exceeded the median GEFT performance for each sex. Between-group comparisons were then made of scores on the state and trait scales of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. In neither case was there a significant difference between the DEP and INDEP groups. However, for males only, there was a significant negative correlation between state and GEFT scores as well as a significant positive correlation between the two anxiety scales. Although the latter results suggested a sex difference in how the GEFT demands are perceived, it was concluded that neither sex-role nor state or trait anxiety could adequately account for consistently better male GEFT performance.     

Sex differences in children's discrepant perceptions of peer acceptance

Sex differences in children's play patterns during middle childhood are thought to promote greater awareness of social acceptance among girls compared with boys. The present study posited that girls are more discerning of peer acceptance than are boys; however, these sex differences were predicted to vary depending on how discrepant perceptions were assessed (i.e., inaccuracy versus bias). Additional differences were expected if children perceived acceptance by same- versus opposite-sex peers. Participants were 912 third through fifth graders (420 girls and 492 boys). Consistent with predictions, boys were more inaccurate than girls, but only for perceived acceptance by same-sex peers. As expected, girls were more negatively biased than boys, but only for perceived acceptance by opposite-sex peers. Results did not support the hypothesis that boys have more positively biased perceptions of peer acceptance than girls. Overall, these findings raise important issues regarding the evaluation of children's discrepant self-perceptions of peer acceptance.     

Defensive externality and its relation to academic performance.

This study examined the relationship between locus of control and academic performance by evaluating the academic achievement of defensive externals, which has been considered a confounding factor in previous research. A further objective was an examination of the effect of two mediating variables in their relation to locus of control and academic performance. One hundred sixty college students were administered the Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance scales, the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale, and the Achievement via Independence/via Conformance scales. Obtained results demonstrated that internals were academically superior to both defensive and congruent externals. Defensive externals were shown to have higher grade point averages than congruent externals, and female defensive externals achieved greater academic success than their male counterparts. Further results suggested that the relationship between locus of control and academic performance may not be a direct one but may be modified by specific mediating variables.