Gender egalitarian attitudes toward family roles and ability, study time, and the academic performance of rural Chinese adolescents

Abstract

Previous studies conducted in the West have documented the positive role played by gender egalitarian attitudes in determining the academic performances of girls. However, there remains a deficit of studies investigating whether and how different dimensions of gender egalitarian attitudes held by adolescents relate to their academic performance in rural settings. A study of this kind is important in contexts where it is more difficult for adolescents to transcend stereotypes and traditional gender roles. Using data collected from rural China and school-level fixed effect models, this study considers students’ gender egalitarian attitudes along two dimensions: family and ability. Our results showed that egalitarian attitudes toward ability play a significant role in helping girls narrow the gap with boys in math. Further analysis showed that study time allocation partially explains the positive relationship between egalitarian attitudes toward ability and girls’ math scores as well as their overall academic performance. Future policy initiatives could focus on enhancing gender equality awareness among rural children.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Except for one county in Shaanxi province, where only two schools were selected.

2 Apart from two schools in Anhui province, where only two classes were selected.

3 If mid-term exam test scores were not available at the time of survey, students in some schools were asked to fill in their test scores from the final exams in the previous semester or from the monthly exams.

4 In CEPS, the scores were standardized in terms of school or grade. Since the data in our study only sampled one class from each grade, the scores were standardized in terms of class.

5 The item “men are naturally more competent than women” has a loading higher than 0.5 in both Factor 1 (family roles) and Factor 2 (ability). We decided to categorize it under ability so that each scale is composed of the five items with the highest loadings in the respective factor. Second, although the item has a loading higher than 0.5 in Factor 1, its loading is lower compared to the other five items.

6 Then we follow up with the Sobel test to determine whether the mediation is significant (the results are shown in Table A2 of the appendix).

7 We assess language performance using exclusively Chinese scores because it is a core and foundational subject. While English is also an important subject, it is a second language. The quality of English education in rural areas tends to be lower, and students’ learning may be influenced more by other factors, such as family environment.

8 We conducted the Sobel test for the two sets of models as an extra step to verify the significance of the mediation (the results are shown in Table A2 of the appendix). Given that the Sobel test assumes that the mediator and outcome variables are continuous in nature, study time is treated as a continuous variable when conducting the test.

9 Although the significance of the coefficient for the family dimension decreases in Model 6 of Table 5, there is no mediation upon further checking.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong under the General Research Fund [project number: 14642816].

Notes on contributors

Yuying Tong

Yuying Tong is a Professor of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research areas crosscut social demography, migration and immigration, family and life course, gender as well as population health/well-being. Her recent publications have appeared in Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Rural Sociology and many others.

Jenny Xin Li

Jenny Li is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a PhD degree in Sociology. Her research interests include migration, family and child development. She has published in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, China Review, and Child Indicators Research.