Transcending the gender dichotomy in educational gender gap research: The association between gender identity and academic self-efficacy

Highlights

• We study inter- and intrasexual differences in academic self-efficacy of seventh graders.

• Girls, who feel gender typical, score highest on academic self-efficacy.

• Boys and girls, who feel gender atypical, score lowest on academic self-efficacy.

• Well-being explains part of the association between gender identity and self-efficacy.

Abstract

Educational gender gap research tends to focus on differences between boys' and girls' achievement. However, substantial variation exists within the sexes concerning this educational achievement. In this study, we investigate the inter- and intrasexual differences in academic self-efficacy in a sample of 6380 Flemish seventh graders collected in the school year 2012–2013. To adequately consider masculinity and femininity on a micro level, we employ the concept of gender identity. Results show that considerable inter- and intrasexual differences exist. In line with the educational gender gap, girls scoring high on self-perceived femininity are at the top of the pack. Self-perceived masculine boys score considerably lower on academic self-efficacy; however, they still do much better than cross-gender boys and girls. The poor results of boys and girls who perceive themselves to be gender atypical are partly explained by the students' lower well-being. The results are discussed in light of masculinity and femininity.

Introduction

In recent decades, the gender gap in education has become a problem that has captured the minds of policymakers and researchers alike. It became clear in the 1990s that girls had started to outperform boys on several parameters and these trends continue to this day: boys repeat grades more often (Fergusson, Horwood, 1997, Van Landeghem et al, 2010), have lower marks in class (Duckworth, Seligman, 2006, Epstein et al, 1998, Fergusson, Horwood, 1997, Jackson, 1998, Van de Gaer et al, 2006, Younger, Warrington, 1996), drop out more often (Buchmann et al, 2008, Fergusson, Horwood, 1997, Van Landeghem et al, 2010), have lower enrollment in higher education (Buchmann et al, 2008, Van Woensel, 2007) and are overrepresented in special education services and remedial classes (Benjamin, 2003). These findings are not limited to one country, but are encountered all over the western world (Benjamin, 2003, Martínez et al, 2012) and thus constitute a pervasive challenge.

In order to remedy this underachievement of boys, it is important to understand the processes through which achievement is determined. Academic self-efficacy has proven to be one of the most central predictors of educational achievement. Self-efficacy refers to people's beliefs in their capability to perform certain tasks (Bandura, 1997, Schunk, Pajares, 2001, Zimmerman, 2000) and has been shown to connect both directly (Bandura, 1997, Bandura et al, 1996, Multon et al, 1991) and indirectly to academic achievement (Bandura, 1997, Multon et al, 1991, Zimmerman, 2000).

Gender differences in self-efficacy are rather complex and nuanced. For instance, gender differences in self-efficacy only start to occur in adolescence and tend to be mostly subject-specific, with girls having higher self-efficacy in language arts and boys in mathematics (Huang, 2013). These multifaceted findings can be clarified through the framework of masculinities theory. Masculinities theory takes gendered peer cultures into account and hence clarifies how students ‘do gender’ in their everyday lives at school. For instance, certain subjects are considered to be masculine or feminine (Connell, 1996, Martino, 1996). Since students tend to be more sure of themselves in subjects which fit within their gender-category (Pajares, 2002, Pajares, Valiante, 2001, Schunk, Pajares, 2001), this raises boys' self-efficacy for ‘masculine’ subjects, such as mathematics, and girls' self-efficacy for language arts.

One of the largest problems with masculinities theory, however, is that it has a group-based approach and therefore neglects intrasexual differences (Francis, 2000, Francis, 2010). Despite the general tendency for girls to outperform boys, research has shown there are high-performing boys and low-achieving girls as well. Because of the theory's focus on general intersexual differences, these female low-achievers and male high-achievers are rendered invisible (Warrington, Younger, & Williams, 2000). We suggest that to adequately understand the mechanisms through which boys and girls end up at the top or the bottom of a class and thus to remedy the educational gender gap, it is important to consider not only intersexual differences, but those intrasexual differences as well.

We put gender identity forward as a concept that could help to account for these intrasexual differences. Gender identity, a central concept in multifactorial theory (see below), refers to the extent to which someone feels to be masculine or feminine, regardless of biological sex, given what it means to be masculine or feminine in a given society (Perry, Pauletti, 2011, Stets, Burke, 2000, Tobin et al, 2010, Wood, Eagly, 2009). This concept thus builds on masculinities theory by equally considering the impact of masculinity/femininity on behavior, choices, dispositions, and traits. However, unlike masculinities theory which assesses group-based gender cultures, gender identity gauges masculinity and femininity on an individual level and thus goes beyond masculinities theory's scope.

In this paper we will investigate the way sex and gender identity link to academic self-efficacy. In should be noted that we will consider self-efficacy for self-regulated learning. This form of self-efficacy is less gender biased than domain-specific self-efficacy (Huang, 2013), such as self-efficacy for mathematics or language, and is more pertinent to general academic achievement than self-efficacy in a specific school subject (Pajares, 2002, Pajares, Valiante, 2001). More specifically, we will consider the interaction between sex and gender identity to investigate inter- and intrasexual differences regarding the association of self-perceived masculinity/femininity on self-efficacy. This way, we hope to better understand the underlying processes that lead to girls' and boys' educational success.