Skipping to the Bigger Pond: Examining Gender Differences in Students' Psychosocial Development After Early Acceleration

• In Event: Factors That Influence Gifted Learners' Achievement

Abstract

Whereas studies have revealed positive effects of acceleration on academic achievement, controversial results have been found for students’ social and motivational development. Therefore, we examined the effects of skipping a grade on students’ school satisfaction, peer relations, school anxiety, and academic self-concept. Moreover, we conducted moderation analyses to investigate whether skipping a grade affects boys and girls differently. Data were obtained from N = 4,926 German students, of these N = 96 had skipped a grade in elementary school. We applied full matching separately for males and females. Results showed no signif-icant effect on school satisfaction, yet a negative effect on peer relations. However, the ef-fects on students’ motivational characteristics were significantly affected by gender to the disadvantage of girls.

Authors

• Julia Kretschmann, Universität Potsdam

• Miriam Vock, Universitat Postdam

• Oliver Lüdtke, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany

• Anna Gronostaj, Universität Potsdam