Recent public discussions have suggested that the under-representation of women in science and mathematics careers can be traced back to intrinsic differences in aptitude. However, true gender differences are difficult to assess because sociocultural influences enter at an early point in childhood. If these claims of intrinsic differences are true, then gender differences in quantitative and mathematical abilities should emerge early in human development. We examined cross-sectional gender differences in mathematical cognition from over 500 children aged 6 months to 8 years by compiling data from five published studies with unpublished data from longitudinal records. We targeted three key milestones of numerical development: numerosity perception, culturally trained counting, and formal and informal elementary mathematics concepts. In addition to testing for statistical differences between boys’ and girls’ mean performance and variability, we also tested for statistical equivalence between boys’ and girls’ performance. Across all stages of numerical development, analyses consistently revealed that boys and girls do not differ in early quantitative and mathematical ability. These findings indicate that boys and girls are equally equipped to reason about mathematics during early childhood.
This content will become publicly available on September 17, 2023
This study examined gender and immigrant status differences in stability and change in the Big Five traits in a sample of early adolescents in Greece from economically disadvantaged schools with a high immigrant composition (65% first- or second-generation immigrants). Youth in the sample ( N = 1252, 46% female, ages 12–13 at time 1) self-reported Big Five traits annually for 3 years. Mean-level and rank-order stability were examined separately by gender and immigration history. Growth modeling of mean-level scores showed declines in all five personality traits for both genders between ages 12 and 14, followed by increases in conscientiousness for girls and boys, and increases in agreeableness and openness to experience for boys only. In sensitivity analyses, boys showed disruption at all levels of perceived economic stress, but only girls with high levels of perceived economic stress showed disruption. Trajectories were similar for immigrant and non-immigrant youth, suggesting that immigrant youth did not show greater mean-level disruption. However, immigrant youth reported lower means on all traits except emotional stability. Rank-order stability was moderately strong over 3 years and comparable across both genders and immigration histories. Results in this high-risk sample supported the disruption hypothesis and suggest that immigration experiences are associated with more »
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10371483
- Journal Name:
- European Journal of Personality
- Page Range or eLocation-ID:
- Article No. 089020702211273
- ISSN:
- 0890-2070
- Publisher:
- SAGE Publications
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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