Gender effects on perceptions of external assets, development of resilience and academic achievement: Perpetuation theory approach

Abstract

This study found that gender had an effect on external assets and resiliency among urban high school students. Significantly greater caring relations, high expectations, and opportunities for participation in meaningful activities (external assets) from parents, teachers, peers, and adults in the community were available to girls than to boys. Girls also scored higher on resiliency. It was noted that higher resiliency scores did not afford girls an edge in academic achievement nor break the barrier of stereotyping. Instead, the expectations to behave within a given range of possibilities were self-perpetuating. Higher scores in external assets and resilience and low correlations with academic achievement among girls were indicators of perpetuated values that led to complacency and conformity, not to competitiveness, creativity, and curiosity. However, lower scores in external assets and resiliency also may have explained some of the behavioral traits in boys about which researchers currently are concerned.