| The purpose of this study is first, to examine early adolescents' gender-stereotyped beliefs across various domains, and second, to reveal the relation of gender-role stereotypes to math performance as mediated by math anxiety. Girls are more likely to report more math anxiety and have lower math performance than do boys. Participants were 363 6th-graders, 190 girls and 173 boys, from primarily white middle-class suburbs outside of a large Midwestern city. The participants completed questionnaires regarding anxiety and gender-stereotyped beliefs. Their teachers were surveyed about the participants' math performance. Results show that for boys and girls math anxiety and math performance are negatively related. For boys only, a significant relation was found between math anxiety and gender-stereotyped beliefs in math, such that boys with a high level of math anxiety also had a high gender-stereotyped belief in math. |
