性別刻板印象使男孩無法像女孩一樣閱讀

性別刻板印象使男孩無法像女孩一樣閱讀

Girls can't do math. Boys can't read.

女孩不會做數(shù)學。男孩不會閱讀。

These negative stereotypes are not only reinforced by teachers and parents but by a child's peers in the classroom as well, a new study finds.

一項新的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些負面的刻板印象不僅會被老師和家長強化，還會被孩子在教室里的同齡人強化。

"Our study may be the first to investigate how students' stereotypical beliefs about the reading ability of boys form what you might call the 'common stereotype' of a class, and how this common stereotype may affect students' reading outcomes," said co-author Jan Retelsdorf, an educational psychologist at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

德國漢堡大學教育心理學家、合著者簡·雷特爾斯多夫說：“我們的研究可能是第一次調查學生對男孩閱讀能力的刻板印象如何形成，即你所謂的班級‘共同的刻板印象’，以及這種共同的刻板印象如何影響學生的閱讀結果。”。

"We looked at the impact in actual classrooms, instead of a lab," Retelsdorf added. "A key merit of our study is that we have this focus on real world stereotype effects."

雷特爾斯多夫補充道:“我們在實際的課堂中，而不是在實驗室中研究了這種影響。”“我們研究的一個主要優(yōu)點是，我們關注的是現(xiàn)實世界的刻板印象效應。”

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Child Development, found that girls benefited from their peer's positive beliefs about their greater ability to read.

周三發(fā)表在《兒童發(fā)展》雜志上的這項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，女孩們得益于同齡人對她們更強閱讀能力的積極看法。

Student stereotypes about the weak reading skills of boys, however, created a self-fulfilling prophecy of poor motivation and performance among the boys in the class.

然而，學生對男孩閱讀能力差的刻板印象，造成了一種自我應驗的預言，即班上男孩的學習動機和表現(xiàn)都很差。

"It's a cycle of sorts," said lead author Francesca Muntoni, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Hamburg. "Reading is first stereotyped as a female domain."

“這是一種循環(huán)，”主要作者、漢堡大學博士后研究助理弗朗西斯卡·蒙托尼說。“閱讀首先被定型為女性的領域。”

This causes boys to "devalue their actual reading ability," Muntoni said, "while also having less motivation to read, which in turn impairs their reading performance."

蒙托尼說，這導致男孩“貶低了他們實際的閱讀能力，同時也降低了他們的閱讀動力，從而影響了他們的閱讀表現(xiàn)。”

A longitudinal study

一個縱向研究

The study followed more than 1,500 students (49% girls) from 60 classrooms in Germany from 5th grade to 6th grade. In the first wave, researchers asked the students about motivation and confidence in their own reading abilities and administered a questionnaire about gender stereotypes and reading. Then their level of reading skill was tested.

該研究跟蹤調查了德國60個教室的1500多名5年級到6年級的學生(其中49%是女孩)。在第一波調查中，研究人員詢問學生對自己閱讀能力的動機和信心，并對性別刻板印象和閱讀能力進行問卷調查。然后測試他們的閱讀技能水平。

A year and a half later, skill and enjoyment levels for reading were retested in the same students. Boys who believed in the reading stereotype were much less likely to feel good about their reading abilities, and were much less motivated to read.

一年半之后，研究人員對這些學生的閱讀技能和閱讀樂趣水平進行了重新測試。相信閱讀刻板印象的男孩對自己的閱讀能力感覺良好的可能性要小得多，閱讀的動力也小得多。

If the classroom as a whole expressed a negative stereotype, that too impacted the boys' self-esteem, motivation and ability to read, at a rate that was even higher than individual beliefs.

如果整個教室都表達了一種消極的刻板印象，那也會影響男孩的自尊、動機和閱讀能力，甚至比個人信念的影響還要大。

The very real cost of stereotypes

刻板印象的真正代價

The cost of negative beliefs about the abilities of boys and girls have been studied for decades. A 2018 analysis of three studies found toddler boys are expected to look masculine and play with "boy toys," while toddler girls were expected to look like girls, play with feminine toys and be communal.

對男孩和女孩能力的負面看法的代價已經研究了幾十年。2018年的一項對三項研究的分析發(fā)現(xiàn)，學步的男孩應該看起來男性化，并且會玩“男孩玩具”，而學步的女孩應該看起來像女孩，會玩女性化的玩具，并且會有集體意識。

By elementary school, the study found, its seen as "desirable" for girls to like language and arts, while boys should be interested in math and science. Yet, national tests in the United States have shown for years that girls in elementary and middle school are as good at math and science as boys.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在小學階段，女孩喜歡語言和藝術是“可取的”，而男孩應該對數(shù)學和科學感興趣。然而，多年來美國的全國性測試表明，小學和中學的女孩和男孩一樣擅長數(shù)學和科學。

Many studies have looked at the impact of parents and preschool or elementary grade teachers on perpetuating those beliefs in children.

許多研究著眼于父母和學前班或小學老師在孩子心中保持這些信念的影響。