Gender differences in attitudes toward academic effort and boys' underachievement: A large-scale international study

In most developed countries, boys underperform academically compared with girls. One possible explanation lies in boys' more negative attitudes toward school and learning. Using data from 750,000 15-year olds across 61 countries, we investigate gender gaps in attitudes toward academic effort, including students' beliefs about the importance of trying hard in school. Boys consistently report less positive attitudes than girls, regardless of socioeconomic status, family structure, or grade repetition. These gender gaps are observed in nearly all countries and are larger in more developed societies. At the individual level, attitudes toward effort are linked to academic achievement, particularly in reading. At the national level, countries with larger gender gaps in effort-related attitudes tend to have more boys among low performers and fewer boys in tertiary education, especially in the arts and humanities, but not in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. Finally, across countries, these gaps are associated with gender differences in ability beliefs and parental support and with the strength of gender stereotypes, pointing to the role of gender norms in shaping educational attitudes. These findings suggest that cultural and psychological factors may play a key role in shaping gender disparities in education.