Quality of attachment relationships and frequency of mathematics- and science-related activity offers in kindergarten as predictors of girls' and boys' mathematics-related motivation

During the kindergarten years and until shortly before school start, there are no gender differences in (precursors of) mathematical competencies or mathematics-related motivation. Shortly after school entry, however, boys are already superior to their female peers in mathematics-related competencies and motivation. We investigated in a cross-sectional study two aspects of process quality in kindergarten that can favorably influence the development of mathematics-related motivation, especially of girls: the frequency of offers of mathematics- and science-related activities and a high-quality attachment relationship with the teacher. In 135 independent dyads, the quality of attachment between kindergarten teacher and child was assessed by a one and a half-hour standardized observation (Attachment Q-Set). The teacher provided information on how often she provides mathematics- and science-related activities. The children were asked about their mathematics-related motivation and precursors of mathematical competencies were measured using a standardized test. Results show, in line with existing studies, that girls and boys did not yet differ in their precursors of mathematical competencies and mathematics-related motivation at the end of kindergarten. Girls were involved in significantly higher quality attachment relationships with their teachers than boys. While girls' mathematics-related motivation increased with the frequency of the provision of relevant activities, it did not play a role for boys' motivation. We discuss (a) how teachers can be encouraged to offer mathematics-and science-related activities more often and (b) whether a comparable quality of attachment would be shown for boys as for girls if the kindergarten teacher were male

Do Only White or Asian Males Belong in Genius Organizations? How Academic Organizations’ Fixed Theories of Excellence Help or Hinder Different Student Groups’ Sense of Belonging

High-profile organizations often emphasize fixed giftedness rather than malleable effort-based criteria as critical for excellent achievements. With giftedness being primarily associated with White or Asian males, such organizational implicit theories of excellence may shape individuals’ sense of belonging depending on the extent to which they match the gifted White/Asian male prototype, i.e., the prototypical gifted person which is typically imagined to be a White or Asian male. Previous research has reported fixed excellence theories emphasizing giftedness (vs. malleable theories emphasizing effort) to impair the sense of belonging of females and negatively stereotyped ethnic minorities. We investigate the combined effects of gender and ethnicity. We predicted that, while individuals whose gender and ethnicity do not match the gifted prototype show a reduced sense of belonging in fixed organizations, White/Asian males who match the gifted prototype show the opposite effect, experiencing a higher sense of belonging in fixed (vs. malleable) organizations. In an experimental study (N = 663 students), we manipulated advertising material used by a highly selective academic institution in Germany and tested effects on students’ belonging. Whereas the original material emphasized giftedness as essential for excelling (fixed excellence version), our manipulated version stressed effort (malleable version). As expected, females from stereotyped ethnic minority groups felt less belonging in the fixed (vs. malleable) organization, while White/Asian males anticipated stronger belonging in the fixed (vs. malleable) organization. Fixed views of excellence impair negatively stereotyped individuals’ belonging but may even strengthen the belonging of prototypical academic elites

Can I Be Myself Around Natives? Feelings of Inauthenticity Mediate the Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination and Tendencies to Avoid Friendships With Natives Among Refugees in Germany

The social integration of the ever-growing number of refugees in receiving societies is of major importance. Perceived discrimination has been found to predict fewer friendships with natives over time. But what short-term mechanisms explain this effect? In a sample of 115 refugees living in Germany we (i) replicated the long-term discrimination-social-integration relationship, (ii) found short-term associations between discrimination and affective, motivational, and behavioral tendencies not to befriend natives, and (iii) showed authenticity to mediate this short-term relationship: with increasing discrimination, refugees felt less like they could show their authentic selves around natives, which in turn impaired tendencies to befriend natives. Discrimination may impede the formation of interethnic friendships by instilling feelings of inauthenticity. Implications for prevention measures are discussed

The interrelatedness of gender-stereotypical interest profiles and students’ gender-role orientation, gender, and reasoning abilities

This study investigates early secondary school students’ gender-stereotypical interest profiles and how they relate to students’ gender-role orientation, i.e., their traditional or egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles. Gender-stereotypical interest profiles are described by relatively high interests in either female- or male-stereotypical domains and low interests in domains that are not associated to the own gender group. In a study conducted with 4,457 students (49.2% female, sixth graders) with data from the German National Educational Panel Study1, four interest profiles were derived from the combined latent profile analysis of two academic interest domains (mathematics and German) and six vocational interest domains (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional). Aside from two gender-stereotypical interest profiles, two gender-undifferentiated interest profiles were found. One undifferentiated interest profile was marked by generally high interests in all domains, the other by generally low interests in all domains. Students in the male-stereotypical interest profile had high values in the mathematics, realistic, investigative, and enterprising domains and low interest in the German, artistic, social, and conventional domains. The female-stereotypical interest profile was marked by the opposite pattern. The results further showed that students more likely belonged to the high or female interest profiles when they expressed egalitarian gender-role orientations. Also, boys were more likely members of the female interest profile than were girls of the male interest profile. Students with low reasoning skills were generally more likely members of the low interest profile group. Results are discussed with respect to the question whether interest profiles are more predictive of students’ academic development than single domain-specific measures of interest. (DIPF/Orig.

The negative impact of preschool teachers' traditional gender role attitudes on boys' reading related motivation and skills

According to gender stereotypes, reading is for girls. In this study, we investigated the role of preschool teachers in transmitting such gendered expectations. We suggest that boys are less motivated to read in preschool, and less competent in reading 1 year later in primary school, if their preschool teacher holds a traditional gender role attitude than if the teacher has egalitarian beliefs. In 135 independent dyads of a female preschool teacher (N = 135) and one boy (n = 65) or one girl (n = 70) we measured teacher's gender role attitude, child's reading related motivation as well as precursors of reading skills in preschool, and child's reading skills at the end of first grade in primary school. As expected, the more traditional preschool teachers' gender role attitude was, the weaker was boys' motivation to (learn to) read while girls' motivation was unrelated to teachers' gender role attitude. In either gender, motivation in preschool predicted reading skills at the end of first grade

What makes the pipeline leak? Women’s gender-based rejection sensitivity and men’s hostile sexism as predictors of expectations of success for their own and the respective other gender group

In academia, the proportion of women decreases with each career level. In this research, we examined how this so-called leaky pipeline relates to gender-based relative expectations of success. The participants were students from social sciences where women are the majority among students, such that it is more readily – but erroneously – inferred that gender discrimination is not an issue. We assumed that gender-based relative expectations of success should be predicted by two variables. Women students should experience higher gender-based rejection sensitivity than men students, with gender-based rejection sensitivity mitigating relative success expectations in women, but not in men. Men students should exhibit higher hostile-sexist attitudes toward women than women students, with hostile sexism reducing men students’ but not women students’ relative success expectations. We tested our hypotheses in an (under-)graduate sample of women and men students enrolled in educational or psychological majors (N = 372). Results show that a quarter of the women students expected men to be more successful than women and that proportionately more women than men students indicated that women have worse chances of success than men in the job they aspire to. Women were more concerned about being treated differently because of their gender than men, and men held more sexist attitudes toward women than women, with gender-based rejection sensitivity contributing to women students’ and sexism to men students’ expectation that their own gender group will less likely succeed in their aimed for future job. Implications how the leaky pipeline can be patched are discussed

Who gets to see themselves as talented? Biased self-concepts contribute to first-generation students' disadvantage in talent-focused environments

Intellectual talent is commonly regarded as an important factor for success – i.e., “what it takes to succeed” in Western educational contexts. Yet, the differential experiences individuals have may not allow everyone to think of themselves as talented - i.e., as having “what it takes to succeed” - to the same degree. In five studies with 3584 students in Western countries, we show i) that first-generation students see themselves as less intellectually talented than continuing-generation students, ii) that this bias in self-concept contributes to disadvantages in their academic experience and engagement, and iii) how this disadvantage may be reduced. Quasi-experiments 1a and b (N = 694; 316) show that first-generation students view themselves as relatively less talented, but not less diligent, above and beyond prior performance-levels. Field and experimental Studies 2a-b (N = 1881; 362) show that this bias in students' talent self-concept contributes to disadvantage in first-generation students' academic experience and engagement. Experiment 3 (N = 331) suggests that talent self-concept bias is most consequential in talent-focused environments. If, however, environments emphasize effort, disadvantages connected to talent self-concepts are mitigated. The experiences first-generation students have in current Western environments seem to make them see themselves as relatively less talented, contributing to disadvantage. Creating effort-focused environments can reduce this disadvantage and promote equality

Cross-Cultural Variations in Identifying Embedded Figures : Comparisons from the United States, Germany, Russia, and Malaysia

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Previous studies have found cross-cultural variation in field dependence. In this study, cross-cultural differences were expected depending on the degree of individualism or collectivism of the respective cultures. Samples were taken from two prototypically individualist cultures, the United States and Germany, and two collectivist cultures, Russia and Malaysia. As predicted, field dependence did not differ between those samples that represented the same type of culture, either collectivist or individualist. However, a clear difference could be found between the two types of cultures; that is, U.S. and German participants were more field independent than were Russian and Malaysian participants

Growing Together—Effects of a school‐based intervention promoting positive self‐beliefs and social integration in recently immigrated children

We present a school‐based intervention geared to foster the social integration of recently immigrated (RI) primary school children by creating repeated positive contact situations with classmates brought up in the receiving society. Coaches encouraged groups of tandems, consisting of one RI and one child brought up in Germany each, to engage in cooperative activities designed to strengthen positive self‐beliefs and perception of equal status. In a quasi‐experimental control‐group design (N = 318), we compared the 30 children (12 RI) who participated in our intervention between pre‐test and post‐test with a reference group. Self‐beliefs were measured via self‐reports, social integration via sociometric peer‐nominations. The reference group (n = 288 children) included all children who did not participate in the intervention between pre‐test and post‐test: (a) 12 children (7 RI) of a waiting control group and (b) all classmates of both the students of the intervention and the waiting control group. Post‐test self‐beliefs were more positive in children having participated in the intervention. The intervention did not affect social integration: Neither the number of classmates nominating a student nor the number of peers the respective student nominated increased. Possibly, the intervention initiated self‐reinforcing processes which support social integration over longer time periods

Religiosity, Religious Fundamentalism, and Ambivalent Sexism Toward Girls and Women Among Adolescents and Young Adults Living in Germany

The New Year’s Eve 2015 mass sexual assaults in Germany led to a broader debate about whether the perpetrators, most of them self-identifying as Muslims, were encouraged to such acts by particularly sexist attitudes toward girls and women. Here, we argue that it is not the specific religious affiliation of individuals per se that predicts sexism. Rather it should be the extent to which they are involved in their religion, i.e., their religiosity and their endorsement of religious fundamentalism. In line with the theory of ambivalent sexism, we distinguish hostile and benevolent sexism, while controlling for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. In two Pilot Studies, we explored differences in ambivalent sexism (a) between male and female individuals of Muslim faith, Christian faith, Muslim faith, Christian faith, and no religious affiliation residing in Germany, while at the same time (b) differentiating between sexism directed toward girls and sexism directed toward women. In our Main Study, we tested the interrelations between religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and ambivalent sexism in our religious subsamples of male Christians, female Christians, male Muslims, and female Muslims using a multigroup multivariate moderated mediation analysis. In all three studies, Muslims were more religious, endorsed religious fundamentalism more strongly, and held stronger benevolent sexist beliefs toward girls and women as well as stronger hostile sexist beliefs toward women than Christians and non-religious participants. In our Main Study, with female Christians as the reference group, male Muslims’ stronger benevolent and hostile sexist beliefs toward girls were mediated by religiosity and fundamentalism. Female Muslims’ stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism toward girls could be explained by their higher level of fundamentalism. While our findings show that differences in ambivalent sexism between religious groups were partly due to different levels of religiosity and fundamentalism, they also suggest that there are factors other than those investigated in our studies responsible for male Muslims’ particularly strong sexism. We discuss specific contents of Islamic religious teachings and honor beliefs as possible causes to be investigated further in future research