Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics (BM-PROMA)
Published on: August 28, 2021
Gender and mathematics: attitudes and stereotype threat susceptibility in Italian children
Barbara Muzzatti1, Franca Agnoli
1Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, University of Padua, Padua, Italy.
Abstract:
Two experiments investigated the development of attitudes toward mathematics and stereotype threat susceptibility in Italian children. Experiment 1 involved 476 elementary school boys and girls and produced evidence of gender differences in self-confidence in one's own mathematical ability and in gender stereotyping of mathematics during elementary school. It also provided initial evidence for a decrement in 10-year-old girls' mathematics performance when stereotype threat was made salient by reminding participants that extraordinary achievement in mathematics is typically a male phenomenon. Experiment 2 (N=271) replicated these findings and expanded them to middle school-age participants. Its results suggest that during middle school, the patterns observed in elementary school consolidate, and the stereotypes begin to produce detrimental effects in girls.
Related Concept Videos
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Bullying
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Panic Disorder
Inequalities
