In the end, social factors meant more for girls than for boys in decisions about math coursework, especially when enrollment in math classes was optional and when girls were doing well in school.
“These findings stress the need to turn attention away from documenting gender differences in math course-taking in high school and toward looking at the reasons why girls and boys take different paths to the same outcomes,” according to Robert Crosnoe, associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and the study’s lead author. “In other words, just because girls and boys might have the same academic standing at the end of high school does not mean that they got there in the same way.”
The study was funded, in part, by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Science Foundation.
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 79, Issue 1, Peer Group Contexts of Girls’ and Boys’ Academic Experiences, by Crosnoe, R, and Riegle-Crumb, C (University of Texas at Austin), Field, S (University of Pennsylvania), Frank, K (Michigan State University), and Muller, C (University of Texas at Austin). Copyright 2008 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. |
