Gender differences in competitiveness and fear of failure help explain why girls have lower life satisfaction than boys in gender equal countries

Abstract

Among 15-year-olds, boys tend to report higher life satisfaction than girls. Recent research has shown that this gender gap tends to be larger in more gender-egalitarian countries. We shed light on this apparent paradox by examining the mediating role of two psychological dispositions: competitiveness and fear of failure. Using data from the 2018 PISA study, we analyze the life satisfaction, competitiveness, and fear of failure of more than 400,000 15-year-old boys and girls in 63 countries with known levels of gender equality. We find that competitiveness and fear of failure together mediate more than 40 percent of the effects on life satisfaction of gender and its interaction with gender equality. Thus, interventions targeting competitiveness and fear of failure could potentially have an impact on the gender gap in life satisfaction among adolescents in gender equal countries.

Young People and the Future: School Students’ Concerns and Hopes for the Future after One Year of COVID-19 in Austria—Findings of a Mixed-Methods Pilot Study

“…This suggests that female respondents generally felt more burdened by the pandemic measures, which is consistent with other studies [ 83 ] and may indicate that female adolescents rely more on face-to-face contact than male adolescents [ 84 ]. Female respondents were also more likely to fear failure, which is in line with other studies [ 68 , 85 ]. At the same time, they were more likely to express a desire for a happy life in the future.…”

“…At the same time, they were more likely to express a desire for a happy life in the future. This seems plausible in light of recent research indicating lower life satisfaction among female respondents [65,68,86]. Female respondents were more likely to report health-related concerns about the future.…”

“…The high frequency of these categories should be seen in the context of decreased life satisfaction among young people during the pandemic [ 60 , 65 , 66 , 67 ]. Fear of failure has been found to be associated with lower life satisfaction [ 68 , 69 ]. On the other hand, students who felt more competent and supported in their autonomy reported higher well-being [ 59 ].…”

Body Mass Index Trends before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Primary School Students in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia: A Retrospective Study

“…Girls enter puberty earlier and gain more fat [ 70 ]. Girls at that age are less satisfied with life, have less desire to compete, and a greater fear of failure than boys; additionally, research has also shown that menstruation, social problems, lack of support, and a poorer environment in girls have a bad effect on PA [ 71 , 72 ]. We assume that since girls enter puberty earlier and mature sooner, they already start questioning their future adult life, while boys of that age are considered immature and still interested in children’s games.…”

Disentangling the Effects of Human Development and Gender Egalitarianism on the Gender/Sex Gap in the Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits across Countries

“…These two indices, HDI and GII are highly positively correlated with each other at the country level, r(191) = -.91 (UNDP, 2022). In some recent studies (Eriksson & Strimling, 2023;Mac Giolla & Kajonius, 2019), a more comprehensive index of gender equality known as the Global Gender Gap Index (World Economic Forum, 2022) has been used which measures economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment of women compared to men in a society. The HDI and GGG scores have been shown to be correlated at r = .60 across 62 countries (Bosson et al, 2021).…”