GENDER DIFFERENCES IN GENERAL ACADEMIC SELF-ESTEEM AND IN SUCCESS EXPECTATIONS ON DEFINED ACADEMIC PROBLEMS

In this study, gender differences in different dimensions of academic self-concept were examined. General academic self-esteem and expectations of being able to master particular math and verbal problems were measured in 231 sixth-grade Norwegian students. The girls had a substantially higher level of achievement and higher success expectations than their male classmates in Norwegian and English tasks, whereas there were no gender differences in achievement or success expectations in mathematics or in general academic self-esteem. A path analysis revealed that the differences in success expectations in English and Norwegian were no larger than could be explained by differences in achievement, and support for a direct effect of sex stereotypes on success expectations was not found.