To investigate the recommendation that children practice reading aloud at home, conversations of 3rd graders reading to their mothers were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded. Conversations between below-average readers and their mothers were marked by the frequent use of error corrections. College-educated mothers asked significantly more…

Investigates whether differences exist in perceptions of class activities for students in Grades 3-8 and between genders. In general, middle school students found their classroom activities less frequently interesting and enjoyable, with fewer opportunities for choice. Girls indicated that their class activities were more frequently interesting…

Examines peer affiliations of aggressive children in a sample of 948 students from 4th through 6th grades. The deviant peer group hypothesis was partially supported. Two thirds of aggressive boys and one half of aggressive girls were most likely to be members of nonaggressive groups, whereas popular aggressive boys were most likely to be in…

There is disagreement over whether girls or boys are at risk in the context of school. Girls outperform boys in school, particularly in stereotypically feminine subjects. However, girls are also more vulnerable to internal distress than boys are. The aim of this research was to understand this pattern of gender differences. (Author)

Reports on results of a longitudinal study of relative reading achievement of 87 boys and 100 girls from 1st through 6th grades. There was a systematic relationship between gender and reading categorization in Grades 1-3, but not Grades 4-6. Implications include a case for early reading intervention and for reconsideration of the view that…

Tracks 1,110 adolescents identified as mathematically precocious with plans for a math-science undergraduate major. Participants' high school educational experiences, abilities, and interests predicted whether their attained undergraduate degrees were within math-science or nonmath-nonscience areas. More women than men eventually completed…

Examined 1,100 boys and 1,100 girls who matched the U.S. population using the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive (PASS) cognitive-processing theory, built on the neuropsychological work of A.R. Luria (1973). Results illustrate that the PASS theory offers a useful way to examine gender differences in cognitive performance. (BF)

This study investigated the abilities, self-concept, personality, interest, motivational traits, and other determinants of knowledge across physical sciences/technology, biology/psychology, humanities, and civic domains. Results are consistent with theoretical predictions that development of intellect as knowledge results from investment of…

Examined age and gender differences in verbal skills and visuomotor skills at kindergarten, in achievement in reading and mathematics at Grade four, and the link between skills at kindergarten and later achievement. Readiness in auditory memory and verbal associations predicted later reading achievement while readiness in number skills and visual…

Assesses "theory of mind" (ToM), or social understanding, in preadolescents (N=128) and examines individual differences in the relations among social understanding, self-concept, and language competence. Results reveal positive associations between children's social understanding and self-understanding; self-perceptions of behavioral conduct; and…

Examines gender differences in EXPLORE scores of gifted third through sixth graders. Results reveal that boys performed better on Mathematics and Science reasoning, and girls performed better on Reading, but effect sizes were negligible. Test performance of boys in mathematics was somewhat stronger than that of girls, but results favoring girls in…

Investigates gender differences in confidence judgments when they were correct and incorrect on exam items with postsecondary students (N=551) in five countries. Large and significant differences were found in overall confidence, confidence when correct, and confidence when wrong, associated primarily with country and culture. In contrast, gender…

Evaluates the extent to which 14 research skills were enhanced by science undergraduates' (N=57) participation in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Post-URE female interns rated their ability to understand concepts in their field significantly lower and perceived less of an increase in their ability to formulate research hypotheses than…

Examines similarities and differences in graduate school experiences of male and female doctoral students in programs containing predominantly male or gender-balanced faculty. Results indicate that women in male-dominated programs expressed lower academic self-concept, less sensitivity in their departments to family issues, and lower career…

Studies differences in boys' and girls' (N=158) mathematical problem-solving behavior in relation to two types of tasks, computations and applications. Differences were dependent on contents of tasks and gender. Girls rated themselves lower on confidence and attributed bad results more often to lack of capacity and to the task difficulty. No…