男孩为何落后——家庭养育投入与学前儿童认知能力的性别差距

Why Boys Fall Behind?The Relationship between Parental Investment and the Gender Gap in Cognitive Ability of Preschool Children

基于中国东南某省3~6岁儿童的大规模调查数据,从家庭养育投入的视角,对学前儿童认知能力性别差距的成因进行理论探讨和实证研究。结果表明,男孩的认知能力明显落后于女孩,家庭养育投入在其中起到了中介作用,即男孩相比女孩获得较少的家庭养育投入,在一定程度上解释了认知能力上的性别差距。异质性分析显示,家庭收入水平越低,儿童认知能力的性别差距越大;在认知能力性别差距最为突出的低收入家庭群体,消除家庭养育投入的性别差异后,认知能力的性别差距不再显著,因而家庭养育投入对该类儿童认知能力性别差距的形成起着完全中介作用。上述发现启示我们,儿童能力的性别差距与家庭养育投入密切相关,有必要在“儿童性别-家庭养育投入-能力发展”框架下开展更多深入探索,指导父母做出正确的家庭养育投入决策、促进儿童共同发展。

Using large-scale survey data of 3-6-year-old children from one Chinese Southeast province,this study investigates the relationship between parental investment and the gender gap in cognitive ability of preschool-age children.It demonstrates that boys distinctly fall behind girls in cognitive ability in preschool stage,and parental investment plays a significant mediator role for boys falling behind in cognitive ability.That is,boys receive less parental investment,which could explain the gender gap in cognitive ability to some extent.Further heterogeneous analysis shows that,the lower the family income level,the larger the gender gap in children's cognitive ability is;for the children with the lowest family income,once eliminating the gender difference in parental investment,the gender gap in cognitive ability is no longer significant,which means parental investment plays a complete mediator role for the formation of the gender gap in cognitive ability among this child type.Our results indicate that the gender gap in preschool-age children's cognitive ability is closely related to parental investment.It is necessary to carry out further research based on the"children gender-parental investment-ability development",which is important for guiding parents to make better decisions in parental investment and promote the development of all the children.