Gender Stereotypes Of Primary And Secondary School Students And Its Effect On Mathematics Self-concept

Gender stereotypes is one of the issues of concern in social psychology. In study one, 193 primary and secondary students (grade 4, 6, 8) were subjects, by using questionnaire combined with IAT test, we surveyed the development status of gender stereotypes of the primary and secondary students form the two layers of implicit and explicit. In study two, the subjects from study one, we investigated the relation of both implicit and explicit gender stereotypes of the primary and secondary students and mathematics academic self-concept. We also examined the intermediary role of implicit gender stereotype between explicit gender stereotype and self-concept mathematics. The main research conclusions were showed:(1) As a whole,primary and secondary students has a apparent explicit gender stereotypes. In male and female subscales, the level of gender stereotypes on the appearance dimensions is the highest. In enthusiasm character, career and appearance dimensions, the level of female stereotype is higher than male stereotype for primary and secondary students, whereas in ability character and behavior dimensions, the level of female stereotype is lower than male stereotype.(2) There is a significant difference in all dimensions in the male subscale for primary and secondary students of different genders: the boys'gender stereotypes to male gender stereotypes are stronger than the girls'. While in women subscale a significant difference exists in only enthusiasm character dimensions, in the female enthusiasm character stereotype impression the boys are more stereotyped than girls.The differences are significant in ability trait and behavior dimensions in the male subscale for various grades primary and secondary students, and the degree of gender stereotypes for the fourth-grade students is higher than that for the sixth and eighth-grade students.(3) The implicit gender stereotypes were apparently found in students by IAT, and the measurement results of implicit gender stereotypes are experimentally separated to the measurement results of explicit gender stereotypes. No difference in gender or major was found in implicit gender stereotypes by IAT.(4) The moderating role of boys implicit gender stereotype are obvious between the traits dimensions of male explicit gender stereotype and mathematics academic self-perception ,between the traits dimensions of male explicit gender stereotype and self-experience. Similarly the girls'implicit gender stereotype moderates significantly the relations between the traits dimensions of female explicit gender stereotype and mathematics academic self-experience, the relations between the traits dimensions of female explicit gender stereotype and self-regulation.