Inviting One's Self and Inviting Others

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a developmental perspectiveon students' invitations of self and of others usingdata obtained from cohort groups of students ranging fromGrades 6 to 8, to determine whether invitations differ as afunction of gender, and to discover whether these gender differencescan be accounted for by differences in gender orientationbeliefs (N=528). Inviting one's own self decreased asstudents progressed from Grade 6 to 8. Girls were more invitingof others than were boys, but this difference was renderednonsignificant when gender orientation beliefs were controlled.Instead, girls and boys with a feminine orientationwere more inviting of others. Findings support the contentionsof researchers who have argued that gender differences inacademic self-beliefs may be a function of the stereotypicalbeliefs that students hold about gender, rather than of gender.