Will not want: Self-control rather than motivation explains the female advantage in report card grades

Abstract

Girls earn better grades than boys, but the mechanism explaining this gender difference is not well understood. We examined the relative importance of self-control and motivation in explaining the female advantage in grades. In Study 1, we surveyed middle school teachers and found they judged girls to be higher in both school motivation and self-control. In Studies 2 and 3—using self-reported motivation and teacher- and/or parent-reported self-control, and quarterly and final grades obtained from school records—we find that self-control, but not school motivation, helps to explain the gender gap in academic performance. In these studies, girls appeared to be more self-controlled than boys, but—contrary to teacher judgments in Study 1—did not appear to be more motivated to do well in school.

Using Goals to Motivate College Students: Theory and Evidence from Field Experiments

“…Interestingly, we also find that task-based goals were more e↵ective for male students than for female students, both in terms of the impact on the number of practice exams completed and on performance in the course. This finding is consistent with evidence from other educational environments that suggests that males have less self-control than females (e.g., Duckworth and Seligman, 2005, Buechel et al, 2014, and Duckworth et al, 2015 and with Duckworth et al (2015)'s conjecture that educational interventions aimed at improving self-control may be especially beneficial for males.…”

Using Goals to Motivate College Students: Theory and Evidence from Field Experiments

“…These include counselors and mentors, campus centers that students can visit, and student success programs and courses that students are encouraged 41 Existing empirical evidence supports the idea that men are more present biased than women. In the introduction we referred to evidence from educational environments that females have more self-control than males (e.g., Duckworth and Seligman, 2005, Buechel et al, 2014, and Duckworth et al, 2015. Consistent with gender differences in self-control, incentivized experiments suggest that men may be more present biased than women.…”

Explaining academic‐track boys’ underachievement in language grades: Not a lack of aptitude but students’ motivational beliefs and parents’ perceptions?

“…Moreover, it might be fruitful to go beyond the domain‐specific focus of the expectancy‐value model and explore the importance of the variables included in this study relative to variables found to be important for scholastic success in general. Girls’ better achievement at school in general has been linked to the existence of gender differences in a variety of skills (e.g., self‐control; Duckworth et al ., ) and personality traits (e.g., agreeableness; Steinmayr & Kessels, ) which are related to grades at school, and to a better fit between the culturally shared conception of femininity (as compared to masculinity) and academic demands (e.g., Kessels & Steinmayr, ; Kessels et al ., ). Further, situational factors like stereotype threat (regarding the stereotype that boys are academically inferior to girls) were found to decrease boys’ achievement in several subjects (Hartley & Sutton, ).…”