Abstract
Though one might imagine that traditional gender stereotypes about math have lessened over the years, this assumption remains to be tested. We know little about the extent to which parents’ gender stereotypes about math abilities and their correlates have changed over time or the extent to which they replicate across research methods and racial/ethnic groups. To address these issues, we used four longitudinal U.S. datasets collected from 1984 to 2009 (n’s = 537–14,470, 49–53% girls, 32–95% White, 1–59% Black, 0–22% Latinx) that included similar survey items. Across the datasets, parents believed that boys were better at math than girls. This was particularly consistent among White parents, where the small effects favoring boys replicated across all four datasets covering three decades. Compared to White parents, Black and Latinx parents were significantly less likely to favor boys. After controlling for parent education, income, and their child’s math grade, parents’ traditional gender stereotypes were significantly and negatively associated with girls’ math self-concept, a small effect that replicated across all four datasets. These findings have implications for teachers and parents, as parents (particularly White parents) were significantly more likely to hold traditional math gender stereotypes, which relates to children’s math self-concept.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of Data and Material
Data and material is available at the following websites. HSLS: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/ MSALT, CAB, and MADICS: https://garp.education.uci.edu/msalt.html
Code Availability
SPSS and STATA were used for this paper’s analyses.
References
Baguley, T. (2009). Standardized or simple effect size: What should be reported? British Journal of Psychology, 100, 603–617. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608X377117
Berry, R. Q. (2008). Access to upper-level mathematics: The stories of successful African American middle school boys. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 39(5), 464–488.
Black, A. R., & Peacock, N. (2011). Pleasing the masses: Messages for daily life management in African American women’s popular media sources. American Journal of Public Health, 101(1), 144–150. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.167817
Bleeker, M. M., & Jacobs, J. E. (2004). Achievement in math and science: Do mothers’ beliefs matter 12 years later? Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(1), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.1.97
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgens, J. P. T., Rothstein, H. R. (2021). Introduction to meta-analysis (2nd ed). Wiley. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Introduction+to+Meta+Analysis%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119558354
Breda, T., Jouini, E., Napp, C., & Thebault, G. (2020). Gender stereotypes can explain the gender-equality paradox. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2008704117
Ceci, S. J., Ginther, D. K., Kahn, S., & Williams, W. M. (2014). Women in academic science: A changing landscape. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 15(3), 75–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100614541236
Dapp, L. C., & Roebers, C. (2018). Self-concept in kindergarten and first grade children: A longitudinal study on structure, development, and relation to achievement. Psychology, 9(7), 1605–1629. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.97097
Denner, J., Laursen, B., Dickson, D., & Hartl, A. C. (2018). Latino children’s math confidence: The role of mothers’ gender stereotypes and involvement across the transition to middle school. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 38(4), 513–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431616675972
Diemer, M. A., Marchand, A., McKellar, S., & Malanchuk, O. (2016). Promotive and corrosive factors in African American students’ math beliefs and achievement. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 45(6), 1208–1225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0439-9
Duncan, G. J., Engel, M., Claessens, A., & Dowsett, C. J. (2014). Replication and robustness in developmental research. Developmental Psychology, 50(11), 2417–2425. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037996
Eccles, J. S., Freedman-Doan, C., Frome, P., Jacobs, J., & Yoon, K. S. (2000). Gender-role socialization in the family: A longitudinal approach. The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 333-360). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Eccles, J. S., Jacobs, J. E., & Harold, R. D. (1990). Gender role stereotypes, expectancy effects, and parents’ socialization of gender differences. Journal of Social Issues, 46(2), 183–201. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1990.tb01929.x
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2020). From expectancy-value theory to situated expectancy-value theory: A developmental, social cognitive, and sociocultural perspective on motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 61, 101859. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2020.101859
Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (1995). In the mind of the actor: The structure of adolescents’ academic achievement related-beliefs and self-perceptions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 215–225.
Else-Quest, N., Hyde, J. S., & Linn, M. C. (2010). Cross-national patterns of gender differences in mathematics: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018053
Enders, C. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis. Guilford Press.
Evans, A. B., Copping, K. E., Rowley, S. J., & Kurtz-Costes, B. (2011). Academic self-concept in Black adolescents: Do race and gender stereotypes matter? Self and Identity, 10(2), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2010.485358
Fisher, G. G., Matthews, R. A., & Gibbons, A. M. (2016). Developing and investigating the use of single-item measures in organizational research. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 21(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039139
Gardner, D. G., Cummings, L. L., Dunham, R. B., & Pierce, J. L. (1998). Single-item versus multiple-item measurement scales: An empirical comparison. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 58(6), 898–915. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164498058006003
Gniewosz, B., Eccles, J. S., & Noack, P. (2015). Early adolescents’ development of academic self-concept and intrinsic task value: The role of contextual feedback. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25(3), 459–473. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12140
Gutierrez, B. C., Halim, M. L. D., & Leaper, C. (2019). Variations in recalled familial messages about gender in relation to emerging adults’ gender, ethnic background, and current gender attitudes. Journal of Family Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2019.1685562
Hays, R. D., Reise, S., & Calderón, J. L. (2012). How much is lost in using single items? Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(11), 1402–1403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-012-2182-6
Hedges, L. V., & Schauer, J. M. (2019). Statistical analyses for studying replication: Meta-analytic perspectives. Psychological Methods, 24(5), 557–570. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000189
Herbert, J., & Stipek, D. (2005). The emergence of gender differences in children’s perceptions of their academic competence. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 276–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2005.02.007
Hoekstra, R., Johnson, A., & Kiers, H. A. L. (2012). Confidence intervals make a difference: Effects of showing confidence intervals on inferential reasoning. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 72(6), 1039–1052. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164412450297
Hsieh, T. ‑Y., Simpkins, S. D., & Eccles, J. S. (2021). Gender by racial/ethnic intersectionality in the patterns of adolescents’ math motivation and their math achievement and engagement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 66, 101974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.101974
Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (2015). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Sage Publications.
Jacobs, J. E. (1991). Influence of gender stereotypes on parent and child mathematics attitudes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(4), 518–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.83.4.518
Jacobs, J. E., & Eccles, J. S. (1992). The impact of mothers’ gender-role stereotypic beliefs on mothers’ and children’s ability perceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(6), 932–944. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.6.932
Jacobs, J. E., Lanza, S., Osgood, D. W., Eccles, J. S., & Wigfield, A. (2002). Changes in children’s self-competence and values: Gender and domain differences across grades one though twelve. Child Development, 73(2), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00421
Jiang, S., Simpkins, S. D., & Eccles, J. S. (2020). Individuals’ math and science motivation and their subsequent STEM choices and achievement in high school and college: A longitudinal study of gender and college generation status differences. Developmental Psychology, 56(11), 2137–2151. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001110
Kang, C., Jo, H., Han, S. W., & Weis, L. (2021). Complexifying Asian American student pathways to STEM majors: Differences by ethnic subgroups and college selectivity. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000326
Kurtz-Costes, B., Copping, K. E., Rowley, S. J., & Kinlaw, C. R. (2014). Gender and age differences in awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about academic abilities. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 29(4), 603–618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-014-0216-7
Kurtz-Costes, B., Rowley, S. J., Harris-Britt, A., & Woods, T. A. (2008). Gender stereotypes about mathematics and science and self-perceptions of ability in late childhood and early adolescence. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54(3), 386–409. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.0.0001
Lauermann, F., Tsai, Y., & Eccles, J. S. (2017). Math-related career aspirations and choices within Eccles et al.’s expectancy–value theory of achievement-related behaviors. Developmental Psychology, 53(8), 1540–1559. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000367
Law, F., McGuire, L., Winterbottom, M., & Rutland, A. (2021). Children’s gender stereotypes in STEM following a one-shot growth mindset intervention in a science museum. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 641695. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641695
Lee, H. J., Lee, J., Song, J., Kim, S., & Bong, M. (2022). Promoting children’s math motivation by changing parents’ gender stereotypes and expectations for math. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi-org.oca.ucsc.edu/10.1037/edu0000743
Lindberg, S. M., Hyde, J. S., & Hirsch, L. M. (2008). Gender and mother-child interactions during mathematics homework: The importance of individual differences. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54(2), 232–255. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2008.0017
Lindberg, S. M., Hyde, J. S., Petersen, J. L., & Linn, M. C. (2010). New trends in gender and mathematics performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136(6), 1123–1135. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021276
Liu, R. (2018). Gender-math stereotype, biased self-assessment, and aspiration in STEM careers: The gender gap among early adolescents in China. Comparative Education Review, 62(4), 522–541. https://doi.org/10.1086/699565
Long, M., Steinke, J., Applegate, B., Knight Lapinski, M., Johnson, M., & Ghosh, S. (2010). Portrayals of male and female scientists in television programs popular among middle school-age children. Science Communication, 32(3), 356–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547009357779
Lummis, M., & Stevenson, H. W. (1990). Gender differences in beliefs and achievement: A cross-cultural study. Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.26.2.254
Master, A., Meltzoff, A. N., & Cheryan, S. (2021). Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(48). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2100030118
Maxwell, S. E., Lau, M. Y., & Howard, G. S. (2015). Is psychology suffering from a replication crisis? What does failure to replicate really mean? American Psychologist, 70(6), 487–498. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039400
McGuire, L., Mulvey, K. L., Goff, E., Irvin, M. J., Winterbottom, M., Fields, G. E., Hartstone-Rose, A., & Rutland, A. (2020) STEM gender stereotypes from early childhood through adolescence at informal science centers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 67, 101109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101109
Musto, M. (2019). Brilliant or bad: The gendered social construction of exceptionalism in early adolescence. American Sociological Review, 84(3), 369–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419837567
National Science Foundation (NSF). (2021). Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2019). High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 User Manuals. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/usermanuals.asp
Nichols, A. L., & Webster, G. D. (2013). The single-item need to belong scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(2), 189–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.02.018
Nollenberger, N., Rodríguez-Planas, N., & Sevilla, A. (2016). The math gender gap: The role of culture. American Economic Review, 106(5), 257–261. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.p20161121
O’Brien, L. T., Blodorn, A., Adams, G., Garcia, D. M., & Hammer, E. (2015). Ethnic variation in gender-STEM stereotypes and STEM participation: An intersectional approach. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(2), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037944
Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), 943–952. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716
Parker, P. D., van Zanden, B., Marsh, H. W., Owen, K., Duineveld, J. J., & Noetel, M. (2020). The intersection of gender, social class, and cultural context: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 32(1), 197–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09493-1
Plucker, J. A., & Makel, M. C. (2021). Replication is important for educational psychology: Recent developments and key issues. Educational Psychologist, 56(2), 90–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2021.1895796
Régner, I., Steele, J. R., Ambady, N., Thinus-Blanc, C., & Huguet, P. (2014). Our future scientists: A review of stereotype threat in girls from early elementary school to middle school. Revue Internationale De Psychologie Sociale, 27(3–4), 13–51.
Rouland, K. K., Rowley, S. J., & Kurtz-Costes, B. (2013). Self-views of African-American youth are related to the gender stereotypes and ability attributions of their parents. Self and Identity, 12(4), 382–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2012.682360
Rowley, S. J., Kurtz-Costes, B., Mistry, R., & Feagans, L. (2007). Social status as a predictor of race and gender stereotypes in late childhood and early adolescence. Social Development, 16(1), 150–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00376.x
Rubach, C., Lee, G., Starr, C., Gao, Y., Safavian, N., Dicke, A. L., Eccles, J. S., & Simpkins, S. D. (In press). Is there any evidence of historical changes in gender differences in American high school students’ math competence-related beliefs over the last 30 years? International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology.
Scafidi, T., & Bui, K. (2010). Gender similarities in math performance from middle school through high school. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 37(3).
Schoon, I., & Eccles, J. S. (2014). Gender differences in aspirations and attainment: A life course perspective. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139128933
Seo, E., Shen, Y., & Alfaro, E. C. (2019). Adolescents’ beliefs about math ability and their relations to STEM career attainment: Joint consideration of race/ethnicity and gender. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(2), 306–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0911-9
Skinner, O. D., Kurtz-Costes, B., Vuletich, H., Copping, K., & Rowley, S. J. (2021). Race differences in Black and White adolescents’ academic gender stereotypes across middle and late adolescence. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 27(3), 537–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000384
Simpkins, S. D., Fredricks, J. A., & Eccles, J. S. (2015). The role of parents in the ontogeny of achievement-related motivation and behavioral choices: I. Introduction. In Monographs of the society for research in child development (Vol. 80, pp. 1–22). Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Starr, C. R. (2018). I’m not a science nerd!: STEM stereotypes, identity, and motivation among undergraduate women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 42(4), 489–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684318793848
Starr, C. R., & Simpkins, S. D. (2021). High school students’ math and science gender stereotypes: Relations with their STEM outcomes and socializers’ stereotypes. Social Psychology of Education, 24(1), 273–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09611-4
Stickney, L. T., & Konrad, A. M. (2007). Gender-role attitudes and earnings: A multinational study of married women and men. Sex Roles, 57, 801–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9311-4
Stoet, G., Bailey, D. H., Moore, A. M., & Geary, D. C. (2016). Countries with higher levels of gender equality show larger national sex differences in mathematics anxiety and relatively lower parental mathematics valuation for girls. PLoS One, 11(4), 24. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153857
Tang, C. S., Chua, Z., & Jiaqing, O. (2010). A gender perspective on Chinese social relationships and behavior. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 533–553). Oxford University Press.
Thompson, B. (2007). Effect sizes, confidence intervals, and confidence intervals for effect sizes. Psychology in the Schools, 44(5), 423–432. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20234
Tiedemann, J. (2000). Parents’ gender stereotypes and teachers’ beliefs as predictors of children’s concept of their mathematical ability in elementary school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 144. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020518104346
Umarji, O., Dicke, A. L., Safavian, N., Karabenick, S. A., & Eccles, J. S. (2021). Teachers caring for students and students caring for math: The development of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents’ math motivation. Journal of School Psychology, 84, 32–48.
U.S. Department of Education. (2016). The state of racial diversity in the educator workforce. Washington, D.C. http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-diversityworkforce.pdf
Wodtke, G. T. (2012). The impact of education on intergroup attitudes: A multiracial analysis. Social Psychology Quarterly, 75, 80–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272511430234
Wood, D., Kurtz-Costes, B., Rowley, S. J., & Okeke-Adeyanju, N. (2010). Mothers’ academic gender stereotypes and education-related beliefs about sons and daughters in African American families. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(2), 521–530. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018481
Acknowledgements
We thank the principals, teachers, students, and parents of the cooperating school districts for their participation in these projects.
Funding
Two National Science Foundation grants (DRL-1760757 and EHR-2054956) to Sandra Simpkins and Jacquelynne Eccles supported the present analyses and writing of this paper. Additionally, multiple grants supported collecting and sustaining three of the datasets that this paper uses (CAB, MADICS, and MSALT): two NSF grants to Jacquelynne Eccles (BNS 85–10504) and Jacquelynne Eccles and Pamela Davis-Kean (0089972), two grants from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to Jacquelynne Eccles (HD17296) and Jacquelynne Eccles, Allan Wigfield, Phyllis Blumenfeld, and Rena Harold (HD17553), and two grants from the MacArthur Network, a grant from the National Institute for Mental Health (MH31724), and a grant from the W.T. Grant Foundation, each awarded to Jacquelynne Eccles.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics Approval
The present study used deidentified, secondary human participant data from four datasets: MSALT, CAB, MADICS, and HSLS. Use of the data was approved by the University of California, Irvine Institutional Review Board under the project name “Family Support of Math and Science: Examining an Untapped Source of Resilience for Diverse High School Students” (protocol HS#2018-4349).
Informed Consent
The present study used deidentified, secondary data from four datasets. More information on the datasets, including informed consent, can be found at the following websites. MSALT, CAB, and MADICS: Gender & Achievement Research Program, https://garp.education.uci.edu/msalt.html. HSLS: National Center for Education Statistics, https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/hsls09/
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Starr, C.R., Gao, Y., Lee, G. et al. Parents’ Math Gender Stereotypes and Their Correlates: An Examination of the Similarities and Differences Over the Past 25 Years. Sex Roles 87, 603–619 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01337-7
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-022-01337-7