性别刻板印象使男孩无法像女孩一样阅读

性别刻板印象使男孩无法像女孩一样阅读

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

女孩不会做数学。男孩不会阅读。

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.

一项新的研究发现，这些负面的刻板印象不仅会被老师和家长强化，还会被孩子在教室里的同龄人强化。

"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.

德国汉堡大学教育心理学家、合著者简·雷特尔斯多夫说：“我们的研究可能是第一次调查学生对男孩阅读能力的刻板印象如何形成，即你所谓的班级‘共同的刻板印象’，以及这种共同的刻板印象如何影响学生的阅读结果。”。

"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."

雷特尔斯多夫补充道:“我们在实际的课堂中，而不是在实验室中研究了这种影响。”“我们研究的一个主要优点是，我们关注的是现实世界的刻板印象效应。”

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.

周三发表在《儿童发展》杂志上的这项研究发现，女孩们得益于同龄人对她们更强阅读能力的积极看法。

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，学生对男孩阅读能力差的刻板印象，造成了一种自我应验的预言，即班上男孩的学习动机和表现都很差。

"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."

“这是一种循环，”主要作者、汉堡大学博士后研究助理弗朗西斯卡·蒙托尼说。“阅读首先被定型为女性的领域。”

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."

蒙托尼说，这导致男孩“贬低了他们实际的阅读能力，同时也降低了他们的阅读动力，从而影响了他们的阅读表现。”

A longitudinal study

一个纵向研究

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.

该研究跟踪调查了德国60个教室的1500多名5年级到6年级的学生(其中49%是女孩)。在第一波调查中，研究人员询问学生对自己阅读能力的动机和信心，并对性别刻板印象和阅读能力进行问卷调查。然后测试他们的阅读技能水平。

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，研究人员对这些学生的阅读技能和阅读乐趣水平进行了重新测试。相信阅读刻板印象的男孩对自己的阅读能力感觉良好的可能性要小得多，阅读的动力也小得多。

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.

如果整个教室都表达了一种消极的刻板印象，那也会影响男孩的自尊、动机和阅读能力，甚至比个人信念的影响还要大。

The very real cost of stereotypes

刻板印象的真正代价

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.

对男孩和女孩能力的负面看法的代价已经研究了几十年。2018年的一项对三项研究的分析发现，学步的男孩应该看起来男性化，并且会玩“男孩玩具”，而学步的女孩应该看起来像女孩，会玩女性化的玩具，并且会有集体意识。

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.

研究发现，在小学阶段，女孩喜欢语言和艺术是“可取的”，而男孩应该对数学和科学感兴趣。然而，多年来美国的全国性测试表明，小学和中学的女孩和男孩一样擅长数学和科学。

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

许多研究着眼于父母和学前班或小学老师在孩子心中保持这些信念的影响。