Explaining academic‐track boys’ underachievement in language grades: Not a lack of aptitude but students’ motivational beliefs and parents’ perceptions?

Anke Heyder · Ursula Kessels · Ricarda Steinmayr

57 citations0/0 files storedBritish Journal of Educational Psychology

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Education, Achievement, and Giftedness Career Development and Diversity School Choice and Performance

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Boys earn lower grades in languages than girls. The expectancy-value model by Eccles et al. (, A series of books in psychology. Achievement and achievement motives. Psychological and sociological approaches, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA, 76) is a comprehensive theoretical model for explaining gender differences in educational outcomes. In the past, most studies have focused on girls' disadvantage in math and science and on the role of the students' motivational beliefs. AIM: We aimed to explain boys' lower language grades by applying the expectancy-value model while taking into account students' motivational beliefs as well as their aptitude, prior achievement, and socializers' beliefs. In addition, we aimed at exploring the incremental contribution of each potential mediator. SAMPLES: Five hundred and twenty German students (age M = 17 years; 58% female) and 374 parents (age M = 47 years). METHODS: Student-reported ability self-concept (ASC) and task values, parents' perceptions of students' ability, students' prior achievement as reported by schools, and students' verbal intelligence test scores were all tested as mediators of the effect of gender on grades in German while controlling for parents' socioeconomic status. Single-mediator models and a multiple-mediator model were estimated using structural equation modelling. RESULTS: All variables proved to be relevant for explaining boys' underachievement in language grades. Whereas students' ASC, task values, prior achievement, and parents' perceptions mediated the gender effect, verbal intelligence was identified as a suppressor variable increasing the gender effect. CONCLUSIONS: Our results challenge the stereotypic belief that boys' lower grades are due to lower verbal aptitude. Rather, students' motivational beliefs and parents' perceptions seem critical factors. Implications for both future research and practice are discussed.

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1999Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives 2004Confidence Limits for the Indirect Effect: Distribution of the Product and Resampling Methods 2000Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement Motivation 2005Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research 1992A standard international socio-economic index of occupational status 2005The gender similarities hypothesis.2002Changes in Children’s Self-Competence and Values: Gender and Domain Differences across Grades One through Twelve 2006Intelligence and educational achievement

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