There is disagreement over whether girls or boys are at risk in the context of school. Girls outperform boys in school, particularly in stereotypically feminine subjects. However, girls are also more vulnerable to internal distress than boys are. The aim of this research was to understand this pattern of gender differences. Gender differences in academic performance and internal distress were examined in elementary school children moving into adolescence. Girls outperformed boys across all 4 subjects but were also more prone to internal distress than boys were. Girls doing poorly in school were the most vulnerable to internal distress. However, even girls doing well in school were more vulnerable than boys were.

This research examined the degree to which children's achievement-related beliefs could be predicted from their friends' beliefs, both concurrently and over time. For 3 semesters, 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students (N ϭ 929) completed measures of their competence-related beliefs, motivational beliefs, and friendship choices. Concurrent analyses indicated that friends showed consistent, albeit modest, similarities with regard to their self-perceptions of competence, academic standards, importance of meeting standards, and preference for challenge. During the academic year, friends appeared influential with regard to children's ability attributions for success and the importance they placed on meeting academic standards. Over a grade-level transition, friends appeared influential with regard to children's ability attributions for failure. Overall, associations were stronger among reciprocated than among unilateral friends.

The present research examines the achievement-related implications of establishing friendships with high-achieving versus low-achieving classmates. Fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade students ( N = 929) participated. During the fall and spring semesters, the report card grades of children and their friends were obtained and children completed questionnaire measures of their self-evaluative beliefs and preference for challenge. Results suggest that for low-achieving students there are tradeoffs associated with establishing and maintaining friendships with high-achieving classmates. Specifically, low achievers who established and maintained friendships with high-achieving friends evaluated themselves less positively, but also performed better academically, than low achievers with similarly low-achieving friends. Fewer tradeoffs emerged for high achievers.

The authors examined rates of both teacher responsiveness and student participation in the classroom question-asking context. Participants were 165 students and their teachers in 6 science classrooms. Teachers in 3 of the 6 classrooms called on male students to answer questions more often than would have been expected on the basis of the number of boys in the classroom. In none of the classrooms, however, did teachers call on boys more often than would be expected on the basis of the heightened volunteering rates of their male students. No systematic sex or achievement-level differences were found in the types of questions that students responded to. These findings suggest the need to focus on the role that both teachers and their students play in creating and maintaining sex differences in the teacher-student interaction context.Beginning early in children's schooling, boys have been found to have more positive interactions with their teachers than do girls, including more opportunities to answer questions (

Classroom discourse was examined as a predictor of changes in children's beliefs about their academic capabilities. Kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students (N ϭ 106) participated in 2 waves of data collection, approximately 1 year apart. During the 1st year of the study, children's verbal interactions with their classmates were observed and recorded. Children rated their self-perceptions of academic competence during the 1st and 2nd years. Analyses revealed that changes over time in children's competence perceptions could be predicted from the types of statements that children made and had directed toward them by classmates. Examining sequences of child and classmate statements proved helpful in explaining the observed changes in children's perceptions of competence.