Abstract
PRESENTS THE RESULTS of a study of sex differences in reading achievement in 4 English-speaking nations. Considerable research reported during the past century has shown that elementary school girls generally read better than boys in the United States. Some researchers have attributed these differences to physiological-maturational factors; others have suggested cultural-societal causes. The present investigation was designed to test a hypothesis including 6 null statements about sex differences in reading achievement. A univariate analysis of variance in which sex (2) was nested within grade (3) and grade (3) within country (4) was applied to the data for each of 6 analyses. Dependent variables were raw test scores or grade equivalent scores on 3 tests of letter-sound correspondences, and one each of structural analysis, vocabulary and comprehension. More than a thousand elementary children from grades 2, 4, and 6 in Canada, England, Nigeria, and the United States participated. Of the 72 comparisons (6 tests x 3 grades x 4 countries) 18 showed statistically significant sex differences. In England and Nigeria boys scored higher than girls on most tests, while in Canada and the United States girls generally scored higher than boys. Results of the study indicate that sex differences in reading ability as measured by tests may be related to cultural influences.
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