Delgado & Prieto, 2008
This experiment focused on
domain-specific anxiety as a mediator of stereotype
threat. A large sample of boys and girls in Spanish high
schools (N = 313) completed tests of mathematical
ability and mental rotation (i.e., the ability to
correctly judge the orientation of an object that has
been rotated through the perceiver's imagination) as
well as a questionnaire designed to measure math anxiety
focusing on "various psycho-physiological
reactions, beliefs and behaviors related to the daily
and academic use of mathematics." Prior to completing
these tasks, half of the students were placed under
stereotype threat by being told that "various
research studies have found out that boys have better
math ability than girls. We are trying to analyze
whether this difference exists.” (stereotype threat).
The other half of students heard no mention of gender
differences in math (control).
The
stereotype threat manipulation did not affect
performance on either the math test or the mental
rotation exercise. However, analyses focusing on the
role of math anxiety significantly qualified the effects
of stereotype threat; girls under stereotype threat with
low levels of math anxiety performed better on the math
test than did girls with high levels of anxiety. Anxiety
did not affect math performance when girls were not
under stereotype threat, nor did it affect the
performance of boys. These results show that
gender-based stereotype threat in math might be
displayed only by girls with high levels of pre-existing
anxiety. Given that stereotype threat produced
opposing effects in girls depending on the level of math
anxiety, the authors suggest that the construct validity
of stereotype threat should be questioned.
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