Boys' academic underachievement and attitudes about effort

PNAS Nexus

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National gender gaps in attitudes toward academic effort based on data from the PISA 2012 and PISA 2018 surveys, shown as a function of each country's level of socioeconomic development, measured using the PISA Economic Social and Cultural Status index. Attitudes toward academic effort are captured by students' agreement with the PISA statement, “Trying hard at school is important” (THI). 

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Credit: Clotilde Napp

A survey of 15-year-olds around the world suggests that the underperformance of boys in education may be linked to gendered cultural attitudes about whether it is important to try hard at school. Girls do better academically than boys in most countries, earning higher grades and completing tertiary education at higher rates than their male counterparts. Research in some individual countries has shown that boys have more negative attitudes about academic effort, which may explain some of this gap. Clotilde Napp analyzed data from the 2012 and 2018 waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial assessment of 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading, and science conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA includes data on 750,000 15-year-olds across 61 countries, including survey data about the teens' attitudes and opinions. Napp found that boys in nearly every country are less likely to agree that "trying hard at school is important"—and that their responses to this question are correlated with individual academic performance, especially in reading. This gender gap is larger in more developed countries. Across countries, larger gaps in these attitudes also coincide with boys' weaker relative academic performance and their lower participation in higher education—except in STEM fields. Boys were also less likely than girls to report that their parents strongly supported their academic efforts. According to the author, the attitude gap may reflect a cultural stereotype associating talent and brilliance more with boys—implying they need not put in much effort—and effort and diligence more with girls.

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Journal

PNAS Nexus

Article Title

Gender Differences in Attitudes towards Academic Effort and Boys' Underachievement: a Large-Scale International Study

Article Publication Date

13-Oct-2026