Do Gifted Females Attribute Their Math Performance Differently than other Students?

Abstract

Although gender differences in mathematics performance have been investigated in numerous studies, virtually no research exists which examines gifted females' causal attributions for mathematics performance. This study examined whether gifted female students demonstrated unique causal attributions for success and failure in math performance which could be deemed as counterproductive and whether a pattern of causal attributions would differentiate gifted female students from gifted male students and from nongifted male and female students in grades 3, 6, and 9. Gifted females evidenced self-defeating causal attributions for math performance relative to gifted males in the ninth grade only for six of the eight dependent variables. For the nongifted subjects, significant sex differences were not as pronounced as those for the gifted subjects. It was concluded that there was a need for developing appropriate intervention strategies for gifted females to remediate self-defeating causal attributions for math performance in the junior high school years.