One Size Fits All? Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Happiness in Schools

• In Event: Racial Identity and Sense-Making

Abstract

Scholars that focus on gender and happiness in schools have argued, and some empirical evidence suggests, that girls are happier in school as a result of the gendered structure of schooling. However, almost all studies either exclusively focus on White students or fail to take into consideration the important intersections of gender and race/ethnicity. Using data from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET), we find using classroom fixed-effects modeling that the argument that girls are happier than boys in schools only applies to White students. In contrast, there are no gender differences among Latinx and Asian American students, and we find that Black girls are less happy than their male counterparts.

Authors

• Laura A. Davis, Consortium on Chicago School Research At The University of Chicago

• Jasmine L Whiteside, The Ohio State University

• Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, New York University