| Benjamin Gibbs
Ohio State University
Gender Gaps in Cognitive Skill throughout Childhood
FINAL REPORT:
When do gender gaps in math and reading skills emerge and why? I examine gender gaps in math and reading from 9 months to 4 years of age with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study’ÄîBirth Cohort and from kindergarten to 5th grade with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study’ÄîKindergarten Cohort. With standardized assessments of cognitive skills, I find that girls excel in early math and reading skills in early childhood, before kindergarten begins. Although girls’Äô advantages in reading continue, math advantages appear to reverse upon school entry. I show with item-level assessments that this ’Äúreversal of fortunes’Äù pattern is misleading. Girls maintain math advantages in counting, identifying numbers, and shape recognition across childhood. Boys’Äô advantages emerge with the onset of multiplication, division, place values, rate and measurement, and fractions. I find that gender gaps in reading can be largely explained by gender differences in classroom citizenship. For math, gender differences in parental expectations and investments are largely the result of feedback effects rather than parents’Äô gender-stereotypic behavior.
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