Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples.
Gender segregation exists in all walks of life. One of the most common forms of institutionalized gender segregation is perhaps single-sex schooling. Because schooling experience has important influence on students' psychosocial development, interest in gender-segregated education has been revi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2018-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208707 |
| _version_ | 1819018726459047936 |
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| author | Wang Ivy Wong Sylvia Yun Shi Zhansheng Chen |
| author_facet | Wang Ivy Wong Sylvia Yun Shi Zhansheng Chen |
| author_sort | Wang Ivy Wong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Gender segregation exists in all walks of life. One of the most common forms of institutionalized gender segregation is perhaps single-sex schooling. Because schooling experience has important influence on students' psychosocial development, interest in gender-segregated education has been reviving over the globe. Skeptics of single-sex schooling have suggested that such schooling may increase students' gender salience (awareness of gender in categorizations), reduce opportunities for mixed-gender interactions, and increase mixed-gender anxiety, but little evidence has been found. It is critical to explore how single-sex schooling is associated with these psychosocial outcomes in adolescents and young adults because they are in the developmental stage when the desire and need to establish mixed-gender relationships increase. We report two systematic studies on gender salience, mixed-gender friendships, and mixed-gender anxiety on 2059 high school students and 456 college students from single-sex or coeducational schools. Even with demographic background controlled, results suggested higher gender salience in single-sex school students in the high school sample, and greater mixed-gender anxiety and fewer mixed-gender friendships in these students in both samples. These differences were not moderated by student gender and were similar in first-year versus senior college students. Moreover, mixed-gender friendships, though not gender salience, appeared to engage in a possibly bi-directional mediation relationship with mixed-gender anxiety that is consistent with a vicious cycle of escalating anxiety and lack of mixed-gender interaction among single-sex school students. These findings help fill the knowledge gap about the correlates of gender-segregated schooling and shed light on the precursors of later social and achievement differences between single-sex and coeducational school students. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:24:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5d5fdf002c264912a0c68604081402d3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T03:24:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-5d5fdf002c264912a0c68604081402d32022-12-21T19:17:38ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-011312e020870710.1371/journal.pone.0208707Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples.Wang Ivy WongSylvia Yun ShiZhansheng ChenGender segregation exists in all walks of life. One of the most common forms of institutionalized gender segregation is perhaps single-sex schooling. Because schooling experience has important influence on students' psychosocial development, interest in gender-segregated education has been reviving over the globe. Skeptics of single-sex schooling have suggested that such schooling may increase students' gender salience (awareness of gender in categorizations), reduce opportunities for mixed-gender interactions, and increase mixed-gender anxiety, but little evidence has been found. It is critical to explore how single-sex schooling is associated with these psychosocial outcomes in adolescents and young adults because they are in the developmental stage when the desire and need to establish mixed-gender relationships increase. We report two systematic studies on gender salience, mixed-gender friendships, and mixed-gender anxiety on 2059 high school students and 456 college students from single-sex or coeducational schools. Even with demographic background controlled, results suggested higher gender salience in single-sex school students in the high school sample, and greater mixed-gender anxiety and fewer mixed-gender friendships in these students in both samples. These differences were not moderated by student gender and were similar in first-year versus senior college students. Moreover, mixed-gender friendships, though not gender salience, appeared to engage in a possibly bi-directional mediation relationship with mixed-gender anxiety that is consistent with a vicious cycle of escalating anxiety and lack of mixed-gender interaction among single-sex school students. These findings help fill the knowledge gap about the correlates of gender-segregated schooling and shed light on the precursors of later social and achievement differences between single-sex and coeducational school students.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208707 |
| spellingShingle | Wang Ivy Wong Sylvia Yun Shi Zhansheng Chen Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. PLoS ONE |
| title | Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. |
| title_full | Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. |
| title_fullStr | Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. |
| title_short | Students from single-sex schools are more gender-salient and more anxious in mixed-gender situations: Results from high school and college samples. |
| title_sort | students from single sex schools are more gender salient and more anxious in mixed gender situations results from high school and college samples |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208707 |
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