A Six-Year Study of Sex Differences in Intellectual Functioning, Reading/Language Arts Achievement, and Affective Development

Abstract

Summary An ANOVA procedure compared at the seventh-grade level 52 girls and 42 boys (matched upon school entry according to age, socioeconomic levels, readiness-test scores, and intelligence) on three measures of intelligence, four measures of achievement (reading vocabulary and comprehension, spelling, and language arts), and twenty affective measures (personality, self-concept, and attitudes). Girls outperformed boys on measures of language arts and spelling and on six affective measures. Significant interactions (sex, type of elementary schooling, and intelligence level) appeared to lack any meaningful consistency. The superior language arts and spelling achievement of girls, along with their affective advantages, may be mistaken as superior reading skills.