1. Gender Differences in Self-Esteem: Perceived
Gender Discrimination and Gender Ideology
Maxine S. Thompson and R.V. Rikard
North Carolina State University
Maxine_Thompson@ncsu.edu
rvrikard@ncsu.edu

2. Gender Differences in Self-Esteem
 Consistent finding: boy’s self-esteem is
higher than girl’s
 Girls are treated differently in every
context: family, school, and peer
interactions
 Middle school is an important
transitioning point

3. Research Questions:
 What social factors explain differences in self-esteem for
middle school youth?
 Are there gender differences in self-esteem when other
social factors are controlled?
 Does perceived gender discrimination moderate or
mediate the association between gender and self-esteem?

4. Self-Esteem : Process
 Reflected appraisal
 Cooley’s looking glass-self
 Social comparisons
 Festinger, (1954)
 Peers, Family and Teachers
 Significant others
 Sources of reflected appraisals and social
comparisons

5. Explanations for Gender Differences in Self-
esteem
 Gender-based socialization
 Gender roles and gender stereotypes
 Peer interactions
 Borderwork and boundary maintenance strategies
 Physical maturation differences
 Friendships – relational for girls and companionship for boys
 Parent interactions
 Parental conflict
 Teacher-student interactions
 Gendered interactions
 Gendered expectations

6. Differential Treatment
 Understand the link between social categories
and discriminatory behavior (McKown and
Weinstein 2003; Brown and Bigler 2005)
 Recognize gender discrimination and fairness
(Brown and Bigler 2004)
 Contextualized teacher behavior and gender
discrimination (Brown and Bigler 2004)

7. Hypotheses:
 .
 Adolescent females have lower self-esteem than males.
 Traditional gender ideology has a negative relationship with
self-esteem; while physical attractiveness has a direct positive
association with self-esteem.
 Peer stress, marginalized peer status, family stress, and
teacher stress have direct negative associations with self-
esteem; moreover, the strength of each of the relationships
decreases by relational proximity.
 The relationship between gender, gender ideology, physical
attractiveness and self-esteem is mediated by gender
discrimination net of other variables in the model.

8. Sample: Middle School in the Southeast

11. Model 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Variable Name
Social Characteristics
Black Race .024 .085 .087 .044 .033 .055 .093
Other Ethnic Minority -.007 .005 .016 -.011 -.021 -.019 -.008
Female Gender -.118* -.113* -.134* -.141** -.117* -.121* -.056
Age -.161** -.135* -.135* -.163** -.147** -.132** -.147**
Family Characteristics
Two parent household .147* .142* .070 .038 .037 -.004
Mother Supervisor -.019 -.026 .008 .009 .017 .046
Father Supervisor -.011 -.012 .014 .016 .006 .043
Gender Belief
Gender Ideology -.136* -.065 -.045 -.041 -.055
Attraction .125* .183** .176*** .189*** .172**
Stressors
Peer Stress -.279**** -.238**** -.197** -.151**
Marginalized Peer Status -.252**** -.239*** -.226**** -.214****
Family Stress -.153** -.129* -.105~
Teacher Stress -.122* -.088
Gender Discrimination -.285****
F Statistics 2.640* 2.260* 2.640** 8.260**** 8.300*** 8.020**** 9.950***
2
R .036 .053 .079 .251 .269 .278 .341
2
adj R .022 .030 .051 .220 .236 .243 .307

12. Summary
 Perceived discrimination is the pathway by which gender
differences emerge
 Relationships or significant others have strong impact on
self esteem. Peers are more important than family or
teachers
 Attraction is positively related to self esteem
 Younger middles school students have higher self-esteem
than older students.

13. Gender Differences in Self-Esteem: Perceived
Gender Discrimination and Gender Ideology
Maxine S. Thompson and RV Rikard
North Carolina State University
Maxine_Thompson@ncsu.edu