The Development of Gender Stereotypes about Academic Aptitude among European French and North African French Boys

In most Western countries, girls outperform boys in academic engagement, scholastic achievement, and school completion. In the current study, researchers assessed the developmental trajectories of European French and North African French boys' (N = 549; M-age = 11.9 years) perceptions of girls' and boys' ability to succeed in school. Boys reported their perceptions of the academic aptitude of boys and girls annually across the four years of French middle school. Results indicated that both ethnic groups perceived girls to have greater school aptitude than boys in Grade 6, with a larger difference among European French than North African French boys. Boys' perceptions of the school aptitude of boys declined over the four years among both groups, with no ethnic differences in the size of pro-female bias by Grade 9. Implications are considered for developmental theory, including the importance of cultural beliefs that youth experience in the home and school settings.