Adherence to Norms of Masculinity and its Association with Academic Attitudes and Achievement Among Boys and Girls

• In Event: A Developmental Approach to Adolescent Masculinity: Predictors and Outcomes of Adherence to Masculine Norms

Abstract

A growing body of research shows that adhering to masculine norms is associated with negative psychosocial outcomes among adolescent boys (APA; 2018; Chu, 2014; Gupta et al., 2013; Way, 2013; Way et al., 2014) and girls (Rogers et al., 2018) across cultural contexts. Research has also suggested that masculinity norms may influence academic outcomes. Adhering to norms of toughness, stoicism and independence, for example, may make it more difficult for boys and girls to engage and perform in school. However, few studies have examined such association and none have done so cross-culturally. The present study examines in the United States and China whether adherence to masculine norms in 7th grade is associated with academic performance in 8th grade, and if this association is mediated by academic engagement, and moderated by gender.

Data were drawn from two larger longitudinal mixed-method studies in New York City, United States, and Nanjing, China. The U.S. sample (n=724, Mage=12.36, 52% girls) was recruited from 6 racially diverse public middle schools (21.9% African-American, 21% Chinese-American, 26.8% Latinx, 25.8% White,); The China sample (n=710, Mage=12.26, 50% girls) was recruited from 3 achievement diverse middle schools (30.6% low-achieving, 30.1% mid-achieving and 39.3% high-achieving). Adherence to masculine norms was measured with the Gender-typed Behavior in Relationships Scale (Gupta et al., 2013). Examples of items include: “I do not let it show to my friends when my feelings are hurt” and “I cannot respect a friend who backs down from a fight.” Academic performance was measured through self-reported grades in math, English language arts, science, and social studies (U.S. sample), and by centering school records around the school mean in math, physics, Chinese language arts, and English as a second language (China sample). Finally, to measure academic engagement, we used an adapted version of the self-reported academic engagement measure from the Rochester Assessment Package for Schools (Wellborn & Connell, 1987).

We ran multiple linear regression models in our U.S. sample, and multi-level models in our China sample (to account for random classroom effects). Results show a similar pattern across both samples. In the U.S. sample, adjusting for gender and ethnicity, and in the China sample, adjusting for gender and school category, increase in adherence to norms of masculinity was significantly associated with lower grades (see Table 1). Presence of mediation was determined by significance of indirect effect - the product of coefficients from path a and b (Krull & MacKinnon, 2001). In the U.S. sample, school engagement fully mediated the relations between adolescents’ adherence to masculinity and academic performance, whereas in China, partial mediations were found (see Table 2). There was no gender interaction in either the U.S. or China sample. Our findings extend previous research on adherence to masculinity norms among adolescents by suggesting that it not only has a negative impact on social and emotional adjustment, but also on academic outcomes for boys and girls and in the United States and China.

Authors

• Anna Bennet, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Rui Yang, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Angelica Puzio, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Niobe Way, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author