Poster #189 - Norms of Masculinity and Academic Performance among Early Adolescents in the United States and China

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Adhering to masculine norms, such as emotional stoicism and privileging self over relationship, has consistently been linked with negative psychosocial outcomes among adolescent boys (Chu, 2014; Gupta et al., 2013; Way, 2013) and, recently, adolescent girls (Rogers et al., 2018) across cultural contexts (United States and China). In addition, evidence suggests that adherence to masculine norms could be harmful for boys’ math outcomes (Rogers et al., 2017; Santos et al., 2013). However, little to no research has explored whether adherence to norms of masculinity also affect girls’ academic performance and, additionally, if such effects are manifest for subjects other than math. The present study aims to extend previous theory and research on how masculinity norms (i.e. emotional stoicism, physical toughness, and hyper-autonomy) affect adolescent development across cultures. It does so by examining potential effects of adherence to such norms on academic performance among boys and girls in the United States and China.

Data were drawn from two larger longitudinal mixed-method studies conducted in New York City, United States, and Nanjing, China. The U.S. sample (n=760, 51.69% female) was recruited from 6 racially diverse public middle schools (34.9% White, 30% African-American, 35% Latinx); The China sample (n=710, 50% female) was recruited from 3 achievement diverse middle schools (30.6% low-achieving, 30.1% mid-achieving and 39.3% high-achieving). In our U.S. sample, academic performance was measured through 6th, 7th and 8th grade self-reported grades. In our China sample, we estimated academic performance by centering 7th and 8th grade school records around the school mean (7th grade is the first year of middle school in China). Adherence to masculine norms was measured with the Gender-typed Behavior in Relationships Scale (Gupta et al., 2013; α=.71-.86). We separately ran growth curve models with maximum likelihood in our U.S., and China samples respectively.

Results show a similar pattern across both samples. Specifically, in the United States and China adherence to masculine norms negatively affects academic performance for adolescent boys and girls. In the U.S. sample, adjusting for gender and ethnicity, increase in adherence to norms of masculinity was significantly associated with lower self-reported math and language grades (see Table 1) over time. No gender interaction was found in the U.S. sample. In the China sample, adjusting for gender and school category, increase in masculinity norms was significantly associated with lower language and math (marginal) grades over time. Moreover, gender significantly moderated the association between masculinity norms and math grades for Chinese adolescents (γ=3.46, SE=1.61, p<.05).

Our findings extend previous research on adherence to masculinity norms among adolescents by suggesting negative associations, not only with psychosocial wellbeing, but also with academic performance in math and language arts. Moreover, such associations are present for female and male adolescents across two cultures; the United States and China (Gupta et al., 2013). The poster will further explore the mechanism by which masculinity norms affect adolescents’ academic performance. The implications and consequences of adolescent development in the context of globalization will also be discussed.

Authors

• Anna Bennet, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Rui Yang, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Niobe Way, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author