Gender Differences in the Effects of Behavioral Problems on School Outcomes

44 Pages Posted: 18 May 2013

See all articles by Jannie Kristoffersen

Jannie Kristoffersen

Copenhagen Business School - Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR)

Nina Smith

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

Behavioral problems are important determinants of school outcomes and later success in the labor market. We analyze whether behavioral problems affect girls and boys differently with respect to school outcomes. The study is based on teacher and parent evaluations of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) of about 6,000 children born in 1990-92 in a large region in Denmark. The sample is merged with register information on parents and students observed until the age of 19.We find significant and large negative coefficients of the externalizing behavioral indicators. The effects tend to be larger when based on parents' SDQ scores compared to teachers' SDQ scores. According to our estimations, the school outcomes for girls with abnormal externalizing behavior are not significantly different from those of boys with the same behavioral problems. A decomposition of the estimates indicates that most of the gender differences in Reading and Math cannot be related to gender differences in behavioral problems. The large overall gender gap in Reading seems mainly to be the result of gender differences between children without behavioral problems living in 'normal families', i.e. families which are not categorized as low-resource families.

Keywords: gender differences, education, behavior

JEL Classification: J16, I29, I19

Suggested Citation

Kristoffersen, Jannie and Smith, Nina, Gender Differences in the Effects of Behavioral Problems on School Outcomes. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7410, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2266837 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2266837

Jannie Kristoffersen (Contact Author)

Copenhagen Business School - Center for Economic and Business Research (CEBR)

Nina Smith

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

Universitetsparken
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
+45 8948 6413 (Phone)
+45 8615 5175 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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