Chronic stereotype threat and mathematical achievement in age cohorts of secondary school girls: mediational role of working memory, and intellectual helplessness

Sylwia Bedyńska,Izabela Krejtz,Grzegorz Sedek

doi:10.1007/s11218-019-09478-6

Sylwia Bedyńska, Izabela Krejtz + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09478-6

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Abstract

A large body of experimental research on stereotype threat concentrated on immediate consequences of this effect. Far less attention has been given to the underlying mechanisms that may explain accumulative and long-term consequences of stereotype threat. To shed new light on the dynamic of stereotype threat, the current research examined the strength of associations between experience of stereotype threat, working memory, mathematical achievement and intellectual helplessness using structural equation modeling on representative sample in three age cohorts (13–16 years). Corroborating previous research, working memory was a significant and stable mediator of the relation between chronic stereotype threat and achievement across cohorts. Moving beyond past work, the results showed that mediation through intellectual helplessness was stronger in older cohorts, offering preliminary support to the hypothesis about an accumulative effect of chronic stereotype threat on mathematical achievement. Results are discussed in terms of motivational models of stereotype threat.

Highlights

Introduction and literature overviewStereotype threat research proved that activating negative stereotypes about intellectual abilities in testing situations can decrease task performance exhibited by minority group members (Steele and Aronson 1995)
We examine the strength of mediational links between chronic stereotype threat and mathematical achievement via intellectual helplessness and working memory in three age cohorts (13, 14, and 15-year old) of female students
In all three cohorts, mathematical achievement was negatively correlated with intellectual helplessness, and positively correlated with all three functional aspects of working memory

Summary

Introduction

Stereotype threat research proved that activating negative stereotypes about intellectual abilities in testing situations can decrease task performance exhibited by minority group members (Steele and Aronson 1995). Schmader and Johns (2003) documented that negative stereotype activation reduced working memory capacity, as measured by the operational span task that required simultaneous storage and processing of information units. Additional analyses confirmed the mediational role of working memory capacity in explaining the effect of stereotype threat on math test results in female samples (Schmader and Johns 2003)

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