Implicit math-gender stereotype present in adults but not in 8th grade

Abstract

IntroductionTraditional math-gender stereotypes suggest that boys/men are more likely to enjoy and succeed in mathematics while girls/women are more likely to enjoy and succeed at language arts subjects. The usefulness of implicit measures of math-gender stereotypes has been a subject of investigation in mainly the adult research literature. This is problematic, as adults have typically already made many important decisions about their academic and professional futures, thus making it unclear as to whether implicit attitudes about mathematics causally influence men and women's participation in STEM. Therefore, it is important to assess if the same kind of implicit and explicit stereotypes are found among adolescents who have yet to make many of these decisions. MethodsA total of 196 eighth-grade students and 80 adults participated in this study. Participants completed both implicit and explicit self-report measures of math-gender stereotype attitudes, in addition to measures of math self-concept, verbal self-concept, as well as mathematical performance.Results/conclusions: We found that adolescent boys and girls reported either in-group favouritism or egalitarian attitudes towards math and language subjects. Adult participants reported more typical math-gender stereotypes on self-report measures. Adults also demonstrated a correlation between explicit and implicit measures of math-gender stereotype, which was not the case for adolescents. Implicit math-gender stereotype measures were not a reliable predictor of any other math-related variables among adults or adolescents. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the potential usefulness of implicit measures of math-gender stereotypes for adolescents.