Teachers’ gender and disciplinary background contribute to early sex differences in mathematics

This study explores the influence of teachers’ characteristics (gender, disciplinary background, educational attainment, age and experience) on gender differences in mathematics achievement, at the earliest stage at which they appear (first grade), based on 3,800 teacher-student dyads. Although we don’t find direct effects of these characteristics, there is an effect of teachers’ disciplinary background that differs between male and female teachers. Students taught by a male teacher show larger sex differences when the teacher has a scientific background than when he hasn’t. This suggests that merely examining the impact of gender or disciplinary background in isolation falls short of capturing the complete influence of teachers' characteristics on students' sex differences in mathematics. These effects are specific to mathematics in 1st grade, as they were found neither in mathematics in preschool (when sex differences are absent), nor in literacy. This is further interpreted in relation to teachers’ gender stereotypes and practices

Effect of siblings on numeracy and literacy skills, and the mediating role of parental interactions in the DEPP cohort

Previous studies show a correlation between sibship structure (for example, number of siblings) and language development of children, with the number of older siblings frequently being negatively associated with language development (Peyre et al. 2016, Havron et al. 2019). Sibship structure has also been more generally related with academic achievement and adult earnings (Black et al., 2005), even when socioeconomic status and other early predictors of cognitive development are adjusted. Recently, we have shown that this effect is mediated in part by parental investment: parents with more children tend to have lower parental investment in the target child, which is correlated with a lower language development of the child (Gurgand et al in prep). This is in line with Blake’s resource-dilution model (Blake, 1981), which states that a family has limited resources to distribute amongst their children. Thus, the more children there are, the fewer resources available per child – the presently relevant resources being time spent and activities with the child. These results are also consistent with the confluence model (Zajonk & Markus, 1975), which states that a child’s intellectual environment is made up of the average intellectual ability in the family, and as children have lower intellectual abilities than adults, having more children in the family brings the average down. Other sibship characteristics have been shown to be related to language, although not always with a clear relation. For example, the age difference between siblings has sometimes been positively associated with better educational achievement for older and younger siblings (Powell & Steelman 1990, 1993 for older and younger siblings, Buckles & Munnich 2012 for older siblings and Karwath et al. 2014 for younger siblings). Finally, the effect of sibling sex is still not completely clear, as some studies find a negative relation between having a brother and language development, compared to having a sister or no siblings (Jakiela et al., 2020, Havron et al., 2019), while other studies do not find this relation to be significant (Havron et al., submitted, Gurgand et al., in prep). In this study, we plan to examine these sibship characteristics’ associations with other domains than language development, namely literacy and numeracy. Using school data collected in first and fifth grade, we are interested in whether there is an effect of siblings (sex, number of older and younger siblings) on literacy skills, and whether this effect can also be found for numeracy skills. We hypothesize that the potential effect of siblings may be larger on literacy than on numeracy (as oral language better predicts literacy than numeracy). We also ask whether the association is mediated by parental investment. Finally, we wonder whether the language spoken by the parents moderates these possible relations

The association between children’s gender socialization and sex differences in mathematics

This study investigates the impact of gender socialization on early mathematics gender gaps, focusing on children's gendered activities and parental roles. Analyzing data from over 4,000 children (50% girls), we observe that less traditionally organized households correlate with higher preschool academic achievement, irrespective of income or parental education. However, by 1st-grade (Mage=6.6), boys' math performance becomes independent of family organization, widening gender gaps favoring boys in traditionally structured families. These findings suggest that family environment contributes to math gender differences. However, traditional family organizations do not necessarily lead to gender-stereotypical activities in children. Furthermore, sex differences in 1st-grade math scores were not mediated by differences in gendered activities

Assessing the reliability of an infrared thermography protocol to assess cold-induced Brown Adipose Tissue activation in French psychology students

The authors use infrared thermography measurements of skin temperature to non-invasively assess the heat production of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT). In species other than humans, BAT has been linked to maternal care, and may thus be crucial for understanding differences in attachment security. Whereas early BAT research measured its relative presence in the human body through radioactive tracers, infrared thermography measurement of skin temperature in cold conditions has recently been proposed as an evaluation of BAT thermogenesis. Infrared thermography relies on comparing skin temperature in the supraclavicular region, (where a BAT depot is located), with skin temperature in the sternal region (which contains no BAT depots). In cold conditions, the supraclavicular BAT depot produces heat, potentially allowing an assessment of the presence of BAT. We replicated an infrared thermography protocol, which previously reported an increase of 0.2 °C in supraclavicular (vs. sternal) skin temperature in cold (vs. control) conditions in only 7 adults, which probably led to overestimating the effect. With a much larger sample size (N=94 young adults) and the same protocol, we did not find any significant variation in relative (Cohen's d=0.10, 95%CI = [-0.31, 0.50]) or absolute supraclavicular skin temperature (Cohen’s d=0.11, 95%CI = [-0.30, 0.52]). Using conditional random forests, we also excluded a variety of alternative explanations for why the method failed to achieve an effect. Infrared thermographic measurements of skin temperature obtained with this protocol cannot measure BAT thermogenesis

Sibling effects on Numeracy and Literacy achievement: Evidence from Two Large French Cohorts

We studied the effect of the number and characteristics of siblings (sex and age), on school achievement in numeracy and literacy from kindergarten to 5th grade, in two large French cohorts (the Elfe cohort, more than 4,400 children, and the DEPP panel, more than 9,500 children). Running linear mixed effects models, we find that, independently of socio-economic status, having more siblings is always negatively associated with school achievement. This is the case for both older and younger siblings, and for brothers and sisters. Our results are in line with the resource dilution model (i.e., in families with more children there are fewer resources available per child) and do not support the confluence model (i.e., a child’s intellectual environment is influenced by the average intellectual ability in the family), since for example, the association between the number of siblings and the achievement score is more negative for older than for younger siblings. We also find that these negative effects are partly mediated by parental interactions, once again supporting the resource-dilution hypothesis. Finally, although the association between the number of siblings and achievement scores is not moderated by the language spoken by the parents, it is moderated by the family income, with a less negative association in wealthier families

The Influence Of Sibship Composition On Language Development At Age 2 years in the ELFE birth cohort study

Using data from 12,296 children (49.3% female) from the French ELFE birth cohort, we analyzed the effect of various characteristics of the siblings on children’s expressive vocabulary. Children’s vocabulary at age 2 years was negatively associated with the number of older siblings (-.08 SD per additional sibling), and this effect was partly mediated by parental interactions. In an analysis restricted to children with one older sibling, the vocabulary score was negatively correlated with the age gap between the target child and their older sibling. In addition, our results suggest that older siblings might partly compensate for the effect of having foreign-speaking parents. Overall, our results are consistent with the resource dilution model and inconsistent with the confluence model