Bullying,moral disengagement and empathy: exploring the links among early adolescents

The present study examined possible interactive links between empathy (cognitive and affective), moral disengagement (MD) and various bullying forms using a mediation model in 301 Greek early adolescents (10–12 years old). Results indicated that both dimensions of empathy were significantly negatively correlated, whereas MD was positively correlated with bullying forms. Two mediation models were tested separately for each gender. Mediation analysis indicated that boys with low affective, but not cognitive, empathy were more likely to demonstrate morally disengaged behaviour which in turn increased self-reported bullying involvement. Moreover, boys with high MD were more likely to report cognitive and affective empathy which resulted in greater direct and indirect relational bullying. In the case of girls, low affective and cognitive empathy evoked highly morally disengaged behaviour which triggered greater involvement in several bullying forms. Finally, cognitive and affective empathy partially mediated the link between MD and all forms of bullying for girls. The findings are discussed in the light of the relevant literature and implications for practice.     

Boys’ and girls’ educational choices in secondary education. The role of gender ideology

This study aims to explain why boys and girls in secondary education choose different educational tracks. We argue that adolescents internalise gender expectations as to what is “appropriate” male and female behaviour in their gender ideology. Gender ideology can affect educational choices by influencing (1) how adolescents evaluate their competence in certain subjects (competence beliefs), (2) what they find important in a future occupation (occupational values) and (3) what school subject they prefer right now (subject preferences). Longitudinal data collected among adolescents at age 15 and 16 (N = 1062) are used. Multinomial path models show that gender ideology shapes boys’ occupational values and subject preferences, whereas for girls it shapes their competence beliefs. Only for boys this leads to gender-stereotypical educational choices, however. Our results support the idea that gender expectations are stricter for boys than for girls and may prevent men from entering more feminine career tracks.     

A Naturalistic Study of Affective Expression, Social Competence, and Sociometric Status in Preschoolers

Research findings. Naturalistic observation during freeplay was used to explore the role of affective expression and gender in preschoolers' social competence and sociometric status. Observers recorded occurrences of 4 types of affect: moderate and strong positive affect, anger, and distress among 56 children (M age = 50.3 months) in five classrooms. Teacher ratings of social competence and peer sociometrics were also collected. Social competence and peer acceptance were associated with strong, but not moderate positive affect. The correlates of anger and distress were moderated by the gender of the child. Girls' anger, but not distress, was negatively related to peer rejection. In contrast, boys' anger and distress were both positively related to peer rejection. Practice. These findings confirm the relations between affective expression and social competence, but also indicate that these relations may be different for boys and girls.     

A Naturalistic Study of Affective Expression,Social Competence,and Sociometric Status in Preschoolers

Research findings. Naturalistic observation during freeplay was used to explore the role of affective expression and gender in preschoolers' social competence and sociometric status. Observers recorded occurrences of 4 types of affect: moderate and strong positive affect, anger, and distress among 56 children (M age = 50.3 months) in five classrooms. Teacher ratings of social competence and peer sociometrics were also collected. Social competence and peer acceptance were associated with strong, but not moderate positive affect. The correlates of anger and distress were moderated by the gender of the child. Girls' anger, but not distress, was negatively related to peer rejection. In contrast, boys' anger and distress were both positively related to peer rejection. Practice. These findings confirm the relations between affective expression and social competence, but also indicate that these relations may be different for boys and girls.     

Interesting,but Less Interested: Gender Differences and Similarities in Mathematics Interest

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in mathematics interest. In a sample of middle school students (N?=?366), we examined mathematics interest as a trait (i.e., individual interest) and as a current state (i.e., situational interest) during a learning activity in mathematics. Assessment of perceived competence, performance, and effort during learning was also included. Results revealed a significant difference between boys and girls in their ratings of individual interest, but not in the current experience of situational interest. Furthermore, boys and girls did not differ in performance during learning, but girls invested significantly more effort than boys. Results and their implications are discussed in relation to interest development, gender differences, and subjective beliefs.     

Mutual antipathies and their significance in middle childhood and adolescence

Mutual antipathies (when two children or adolescents dislike one another) were studied among 2,348 school-age children and 2,768 adolescents to determine incidence, gender and age differences, and implications for social adjustment. The children were more frequently involved than were the adolescents in same-sex antipathies but not mixed-sex ones. Boys were involved more frequently than were girls in same-sex antipathies, but involvement in mixed-sex antipathies was comparable for the two genders. With peer rejection scores used as a covariate, same-sex antipathies were associated with antisocial behavior and social withdrawal among children and adolescents of both genders and, in addition, to emotionality and lack of friendship support among adolescents. Mixed-sex antipathies were related to social adjustment depending on gender: these antipathies were related to antisocial and bullying behavior in boys but not girls; and to nonaggressiveness, victimization, lesser cooperation, shyness, and depression in girls but not boys. Mutual antipathies thus appear to be concomitants of adaptational risk in both childhood and adolescence.     

Mental rotation performance in fourth graders: No effects of gender beliefs (yet?)

The influence of gender beliefs on cognitive task performance has been demonstrated repeatedly for adults. For children, there is evidence that gender beliefs can substantially impede or boost math performance — a task where gender differences in favour of boys declined over past decades. Therefore, we examined this phenomenon using the Mental Rotations Test (MRT), a task where gender differences still occur reliably favouring males — for adults as well as for children. A sample of 252 fourth graders, whose beliefs about spatial ability were manipulated experimentally (instructions given: boys are better, girls are better or independent of gender) had to complete the MRT. In contrast to adult's literature, children's performance did not decrease or increase as a function of instruction: boys always outperformed girls; girls not even outperformed their same-sex counterparts given the “girls better” instruction. The transfer of the conceptual approach failed — possible reasons are discussed.     

Gender and age differences in awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about academic abilities

We measured age and gender differences in children’s awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about math, science, and verbal abilities in 463 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Children reported their perceptions of adults’ beliefs and their own stereotypes about gender differences in academic abilities. Consistent with study hypotheses, fourth and sixth graders had a stronger tendency than eighth graders to favor their own gender group rather than report traditional stereotypes. On average, girls favored girls over boys in all three domains. Fourth grade boys favored boys in all three domains; middle school boys reported traditional verbal stereotypes and were on average egalitarian in beliefs about math and science. Children’s reports of their perceptions of adults’ stereotypes mirrored age and gender differences in their own stereotypes and were correlated with their own stereotype endorsement. In addition to showing beliefs favoring girls in verbal domains and a tendency for most age and gender groups to not endorse traditional math and science stereotypes, the results support a synthesis of developmental and social identity theories regarding individual differences in children’s stereotype endorsement. Children’s tendency to favor girls in verbal domains may contribute to gender differences in educational and career choices by pulling girls toward the humanities and social sciences and discouraging boys from pursuing those domains.     

Perfectionism and depressive symptoms in early adolescence

The Adaptive/Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS; K.G. Rice & K.J. Preusser, 2002) was developed on samples of 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children. A primary purpose of the current research was to examine whether the AMPS could be useful in studies of adolescents, and in particular, studies of adolescent depression. This study of 145 early adolescents revealed (1) a somewhat different AMPS factor structure than has been evident in studies of younger children; (2) no significant mean differences between boys and girls on perfectionism, although girls were significantly more depressed than boys; (3) a pattern of perfectionism‐depression correlations that differed somewhat between boys and girls; and (4) several interactions of different dimensions of perfectionism in accounting for depression. Results are discussed by addressing differences between children and adolescents in school cultures, physical and psychological changes from childhood to adolescence, and the importance of considering the positive as well as the negative aspects of perfectionism among school‐age children. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 139–156, 2007.     

Gender Stereotyping and Affective Attitudes Towards Science in Chinese Secondary School Students

This study explores explicit and implicit gender‐science stereotypes and affective attitudes towards science in a sample of Chinese secondary school students. The results showed that (1) gender‐science stereotyping was more and more apparent as the specialization of science subjects progresses through secondary school, becoming stronger from the 10th grade; girls were more inclined to stereotype than boys while this gender difference decreased with increasing grade; (2) girls tend to have an implicit science‐unpleasant/humanities‐pleasant association from the 8th grade, while boys showed a negative implicit attitude towards science up to the 11th grade. In self‐report, girls preferred humanities to science, while boys preferred science to humanities; (3) implicit affective attitude was closely related to implicit stereotype. In particular, implicit affective attitude has a stronger predictive power on stereotype than the other way around, the result of which may have more significance for girls.     

Does Felt Gender Compatibility Mediate Influences of Self‐Perceived Gender Nonconformity on Early Adolescents’ Psychosocial Adjustment?

This study evaluated the hypothesis that self-perceived gender nonconformity is distressing to children because it undermines a confident sense of gender compatibility. Participants were 357 early adolescents (180 boys, M age = 12.68 years) in England who responded to questionnaires measuring friendship styles (preoccupied, avoidant), gender compatibility (typicality, contentedness), and adjustment (self-esteem, peer social competence, depression, narcissism). Sex differences in friendship styles indicated that preoccupied and avoidant styles were typical for girls and boys, respectively. Gender-atypical friendship styles predicted poor adjustment, and their impact on adjustment was partially mediated by felt gender compatibility. Results suggest that perceiving gender-atypical attributes in the self undermines adjustment partly because it leads children to feel incompatible with their gender collective.     

How gender stereotypes of students and significant others are related to motivational and affective outcomes in mathematics at the end of secondary school

We examined associations between the explicit mathematics-related gender stereotypes of students, parents, teachers, and classmates and students’ motivational-affective outcomes in mathematics (self-concept, interest, anxiety) at the end of Grade 9. Based on representative data from the German Trends in Student Achievement 2018 study (N = 30,019), results of latent multilevel mixture models show that boys’ and girls’ explicit beliefs in the stereotype favoring their own gender in-group (i.e., boys’/girls’ belief that boys/girls do better at mathematics) were related to higher levels of self-concept and interest and to lower anxiety. Parents’ gender stereotypes showed an incremental association with all three outcomes for girls but only with mathematics self-concept for boys. Gender stereotypes of teachers were not related to students’ outcomes. However, classmates’ stereotypes favoring girls or boys in mathematics were negatively associated with outcomes of the positively stereotyped group. Thus, a male student in a classroom with classmates who share the traditional stereotype that boys do better at mathematics than girls would hold a lower self-concept and interest and higher anxiety level after controlling for the beneficial individual association of himself having the same belief and his motivational and affective outcomes. Similarly, a girl’s motivational-affective outcomes would be more favorable in the same environment characterized by the shared traditional stereotype of mathematics as a male domain after controlling for the negative individual association. Shared stereotypes in the classroom could thus trigger social comparison processes to which students are more susceptible than to stereotypes of their teachers.     

Display Rules for Anger, Sadness, and Pain: It Depends on Who Is Watching

This study examined factors that may influence children's decisions to control or express their emotions including type of emotion (anger, sadness, physical pain), type of audience (mother, father, peer, alone), age, and sex. Children's reported use of display rules, reasons for their decisions, and reported method of expression were examined. Subjects were 32 boys and 32 girls in each of the first ( M = 7.25 years old), third ( M = 9.33 years old), and fifth grades ( M = 11.75 years old). Regardless of the type of emotion experienced, children reported controlling their expression of emotion significantly more in the presence of peers than when they were with either their mother or father or when they were alone. Younger children reported expressing sadness and anger significantly more often than did older children, and girls were more likely than boys to report expressing sadness and pain. Children's primary reason for controlling their emotional expressions was the expectation of a negative interpersonal interaction following disclosure.     

Development of Equity Preferences in Boys and Girls Across Adolescence

The aim of the current study was to examine the development of equity preferences across adolescence, for boys and girls separately. Participants from 8 to 18 years old (M = 14.09 years; N = 1,216) played four economic allocation games. Analyses revealed a decrease in equity preferences with age and this decrease was stronger for boys than for girls. There was also an age‐related increase in the preference for efficient outcomes (i.e., maximization of total available resources), which was again stronger for boys than for girls. Overall, although equity remains as a strong social norm, adolescents are decreasingly strict in adhering to the equity norm and show increasing flexibility in equity preferences.     

Is Victor Better than Victoria at Maths?

The aim of this study was to examine whether there are gender differences in actual maths achievement, in attitudes towards maths, and in relevant achievement attributions among early adolescents. The participants were 255 eighth grade students (mean age 14.2) from 10 randomly selected public junior high schools in Cyprus. They completed a questionnaire that measured their attributions of their own maths achievement and their attitudes towards the subject (how attractive and useful it is). Then they took a maths achievement test and immediately afterwards they reported their affective reactions towards the test (how challenging or threatening they thought it was). No significant differences were found between boys and girls in actual maths achievement. Significant differences were found, however, in the way the two genders explain their performance. Boys tend to believe more than girls do that their intellectual abilities are causing their high marks in maths. Also, it was found that high achievement could predict a positive attitude towards mathematics, but not vice versa. These findings contradict the widespread beliefs that (a) girls are not as good at maths as boys are; and (b) better attitudes towards maths lead to better performance.     

Can salience of gender identity impair math performance among 7–8 years old girls? The moderating role of task difficulty

Can the salience of gender identity affect the math performance of 7–8 year old girls? Third-grade girls and boys were required to solve arthmetical problems of varied difficulty. Prior to the test, one half of the participants had their gender identity activated. Results showed that activation of gender identity affected girls’ performance but not boys. When their gender was activated as opposed to when it was not, girls solved more problems when the material was less difficult but underperformed on the difficult problems. Results are discussed with regard to the stereotype threat literature.     

Changes in children's self-competence and values: gender and domain differences across grades one through twelve

This study extended previous research on changes in children's self-beliefs by documenting domain-specific growth trajectories for 761 children across grades 1 through 12 in a longitudinal study of perceptions of self-competence and task values. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to (1) describe changes in beliefs across childhood and adolescence within the domains of mathematics, language arts, and sports; (2) examine the impact of changes in competence beliefs on changes in values over time in the same domains; and (3) describe gender differences in mean levels and trajectories of change in competence beliefs and values. The most striking finding across all domains was that self-perceptions of competence and subjective task values declined as children got older, although the extent and rate of decline varied across domains. For example, in language arts, competence beliefs declined rapidly during the elementary school years, but then leveled off or increased to some extent; whereas the decline in self-competence beliefs in sports accelerated during the high school years. Significant gender differences in beliefs were found in most domains; however, the gender differences in developmental trajectories appeared to be domain specific rather than global. Importantly, the gender differences between boys and girls did not systematically increase with age, as predicted by some socialization perspectives. Adding competence beliefs as an explanatory variable to the model for task values revealed that changes in competence beliefs accounted for much of the age-related decline in task values. In addition, competence beliefs accounted for most of the gender differences in task values for language arts and sports.     

Changing work values and expressed educational plans of adolescents: A cross-sectional follow-up of three cohorts in Finland

Using a cross-sectional follow-up study we examined how different aspects of work were valued by three cohorts of adolescents 15–16 years of age in 1977 (n=231), 1989 (n=404) and 1995 (n=276), and how these evaluations changed. The association of values with gender and educational plans was analysed. Self-actualising values became more important during the research period. Boys assigned greater weight to extrinsic work values than girls, and girls valued work hygiene values more than boys. The differences between girls and boys were clearer at the end of research period. Educational plans and gender were also related to values. Intrinsic values were valued more highly among girls who expressed plans to seek higher educational routes.     

Gender comparisons of preschoolers' behavior and resource utilization in group problem solving

We tested the hypothesis that 4 - 5-year-old girls and boys in same-sex problem-solving groups would perform equally well when the group task required various cooperative and self-serving behaviors to obtain a resource. The hypothesis that girls and boys would employ different behaviors to obtain the resource was also tested. 20 same-sex, same-age groups of 4 children each (10 groups of girls and 10 groups of boys) were videotaped while solving a problem involving a cartoon movie as a resource. 1 child could view the movie provided 2 other children helped, 1 to turn a crank and 1 to push a light button; the fourth child was relegated to a bystander position. Results revealed that girls and boys were equally effective in achieving viewing time; gender variance in viewing time was significantly greater for girls than for boys; girls and boys did not differ in total behavioral output, but girls tended to use more verbal behavior than boys and boys engaged in significantly more physical behavior than girls; affect in boy groups was more positive than in girl groups; girls who achieved the most viewing time within their group differed behaviorally from girls who achieved the least viewing time, but did not differ behaviorally from boys; boys who achieved the most viewing time did not differ behaviorally from boys who achieved the least viewing time.