Sex Differences in Developmental Pathways to Mathematical Competence

Educational Impact and Implications Statement Adolescent girls and boys showed similar patterns of mathematical development from sixth to ninth grade, but spatial abilities were relatively more important to this development for boys and in-class attention was relatively more important for girls. There are similarities in the ways boys and girls learn mathematics, but girls are more likely to learn material presented in classrooms and boys are more likely to use spatial strategies to understand some aspects of mathematics. The study tested the hypothesis that there are sex differences in the pathways to mathematical development. Three-hundred and 42 adolescents (169 boys) were assessed in various mathematics areas from arithmetic fluency to algebra across 6th to 9th grade, inclusive, and completed a battery of working memory, spatial, and intelligence measures in middle school. Their middle school and ninth grade teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior. There were no sex differences in overall mathematics performance, but boys had advantages on all spatial measures (ds = .29 to .58) and girls were more attentive in classroom settings (ds = -.28 to -.37). A series of structural equation models indicated that sixth- to ninth-grade mathematical competence was influenced by a combination of general cognitive ability, spatial abilities, and in-class attention. General cognitive ability was important for both sexes but the spatial pathway to mathematical competence was relatively more important for boys and the in-class attention pathway for girls.

Automated summary

This study found that boys and girls showed similar patterns of mathematical development from sixth to ninth grade, but spatial abilities were relatively more important for boys, while in-class attention was relatively more important for girls.