When Grades Are High but Self-Efficacy Is Low : Unpacking the Confidence Gap Between Girls and Boys in Mathematics
Faculty/Professorship: | Empirical Educational Research |
Author(s): | Zander, Lysann; Höhne, Elisabeth; Harms, Sophie; Pfost, Maximilian ![]() |
Corporate Body: | Frontiers Research Foundation |
Publisher Information: | Bamberg : Otto-Friedrich-Universität |
Year of publication: | 2022 |
Pages: | 14 |
Source/Other editions: | Frontiers in psychology - 11 (2020), 14 S. - ISSN: 1664-1078 |
is version of: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.552355 |
Year of first publication: | 2020 |
Language(s): | English |
Licence: | Creative Commons - CC BY - Attribution 4.0 International |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-533846 |
Abstract: | Girls have much lower mathematics self-efficacy than boys, a likely contributor to the under-representation of women in STEM. To help explain this gender confidence gap, we examined predictors of mathematics self-efficacy in a sample of 1,007 9th graders aged 13–18 years (54.2% girls). Participants completed a standardized math test, after which they rated three indices of mastery: an affective component (state self-esteem), a meta-cognitive component (self-enhancement), and their prior math grade. Despite having similar grades, girls reported lower mathematics self-efficacy and state self-esteem, and were less likely than boys to self-enhance in terms of performance. Multilevel multiple-group regression analyses showed that the affective mastery component explained girls’ self-efficacy while cognitive self-enhancement explained boys’. Yet, a chi-square test showed that both constructs were equally relevant in the prediction of girls’ and boys’ self-efficacy. Measures of interpersonal sources of self-efficacy were not predictive of self-efficacy after taking the other dimensions into account. Results suggest that boys are advantaged in their development of mathematics self-efficacy beliefs, partly due to more positive feelings and more cognitive self-enhancement following test situations. |
GND Keywords: | Mathematik; Selbstwirksamkeit; Geschlechterunterschied |
Keywords: | self-efficacy beliefs, gender, mathematics, STEM, sources of self-efficacy |
DDC Classification: | 510 Mathematics |
RVK Classification: | SM 607 |
Peer Reviewed: | Ja |
International Distribution: | Ja |
Type: | Article |
URI: | https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/53737 |
Release Date: | 27. May 2022 |
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University of Bamberg
University of Bamberg