Milagros Sáinz, José Luis Martínez-Cantos and Julio Meneses co-author a new paper published on the International Journal of Social Psychology which analyses the factors shaping gender differences in students’ coping with sexist beliefs about academic abilities. A group of 954 Spanish high school students participated in this research, aimed at exploring adolescents’ reactions to academic sexism and examining the influence of moderators such as parental education level and immigrant background.

 

Research findings showed that girls and students with non-immigrant backgrounds whose parents had high educational attainments were more likely to confront situations and experiences of academic sexism. Contrarily, students who believed that boys are better at STEM subjects than girls were less likely to endorse confronting coping responses. Participants who did not embrace stereotypes about boys’ and girls’ higher abilities in some domains were more likely to seek help.

 

This article belongs to a broader study led by Milagros Sáinz as part of the research project ESTEREO, carried out from 2015 to 2018 and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (project reference FEM2014-55096-R).

 

The publication is available in English and Spanish in this link.