Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Nov;211:105222. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105222. Epub 2021 Jul 5.
The mathematics and reading achievement of 322 adolescents (159 boys) was assessed in seventh and eighth grades, as were their intelligence, working memory, and spatial abilities. Their seventh- and eighth-grade mathematics and English language arts teachers reported on their in-class attentive behavior. The latter emerged as an important predictor of achievement, but more so for mathematics than for reading. Boy were less attentive in classroom settings than girls (d = -.34) and performed better than expected in mathematics given their level of engagement in the classroom. Boys' better-than-expected mathematics achievement was related to advantages on visuospatial measures (ds = .28-.56), which fully mediated a sex difference in mathematics (ds = .27-.28) but not in reading achievement, with control of in-class attentive behavior. The results suggest that boys' advantages in visuospatial skills compensate for lower levels of classroom engagement in the learning of mathematics but not in reading competencies.
研究评估了 322 名青少年（159 名男生）在七年级和八年级时的数学和阅读成绩，以及他们的智力、工作记忆和空间能力。他们的七年级和八年级数学和英语语言艺术教师报告了他们在课堂上的专注行为。后者是成就的一个重要预测因素，但对数学的预测作用比对阅读的预测作用更明显。男孩在课堂环境中的注意力不如女孩集中（d=-.34），并且他们在课堂参与度方面的表现优于预期的数学成绩。男孩在数学方面的表现优于预期，这与他们在视空间方面的优势有关（ds=.28-.56），这完全解释了男孩和女孩在数学方面的差异（ds=.27-.28），但在阅读成绩方面没有差异，因为控制了课堂上的专注行为。研究结果表明，男孩在视空间技能方面的优势弥补了他们在数学学习中较低的课堂参与度，但在阅读能力方面则没有弥补。
