Boys Outperforming Girls: an 8‐year cross‐sectional study of attainment and self‐esteem in Year 6

Abstract

This 8‐year cross‐sectional study measured the self‐esteem, reading and mathematical attainments of eight cohorts of Year 6 children. A total of 1488 children (737 boys, 751 girls) in five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised the sample to which the Lawseq questionnaire (Lawrence, 1982), Mathematics 11 (NFER, 1985) and the Primary Reading Test Level 2 (France, 1981) were administered. Differences in attainment related to gender were found in mathematics, but not in reading, with boys significantly outperforming girls (at the 5% level). The percentage of boys who scored significantly above the mean in mathematics and significantly below the mean in reading contrasted with the girls’ more compressed scores in the middle range. The national test data for Cohorts 7 and 8 followed the national pattern with girls outperforming boys. Boys had significantly higher self‐esteem than the girls (at the 0.1% level). Correlation coefficients between Lawseq and mathematics and reading mean scores for boys and girls were all significant at the 0.1% level. The findings are discussed in relation to the current debate concerning the low performance of boys.