Parental overconfidence in boys’ math skills may widen gender gap in STEM, study suggests

Research has revealed that parents are more prone to overestimating their sons' math abilities compared to their daughters', highlighting how gender stereotypes at home might impact female students' academic progress.

The findings, shared in a lecture at University College London suggest that these biases could contribute to the persistent gender gap in subjects like mathematics, physics, and engineering.

Dr. Valentina Tonei, an economist from the University of Southampton, presented the research at the Institute of Education, emphasizing that gender stereotypes might lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“We often hear that girls don’t like math, but what has been done to explore why this is the case?” Dr. Tonei said. “I’m convinced that the issue is not that girls dislike math, but rather that years of exposure to stereotypes shape these perceptions.”

The study, which analyzed data from approximately 3,000 children and their parents participating in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), found that while parents generally overestimated their children's academic performance in both reading and math, this overestimation was notably greater for boys in mathematics. Parents rated their son’s math abilities more highly than their daughter’s actual performance, even though girls scored slightly better in reading and boys performed marginally better in math.

Interestingly, the bias was less pronounced among the small percentage of parents who completed the survey after receiving their child's actual test scores. Additionally, highly-educated mothers and those in female-dominated professions showed less of this gender bias.

Dr. Tonei noted that providing parents with clear, objective information about their children's skills could help mitigate these biases. “Parents need accurate information to support their children effectively. Many biases are unconscious, so early intervention is crucial. Test scores can be a powerful tool to shift parental beliefs,” she said.

The study also suggested that parental overconfidence could influence a child’s educational trajectory. Children whose parents overestimated their abilities tended to perform better in subsequent tests, which paradoxically widened the gender gap in math skills.

Prof. Gina Rippon, a neuroscientist at Aston University, affirmed that these findings align with established psychological evidence that gender stereotypes can shape parenting. “Psychology has long known that parents have different expectations for boys and girls,” she stated. “It’s encouraging that providing objective scores can help counteract this effect.”