Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia

Nakajima, Nozomi ; Jung, Haeil ; Pradhan, Menno ; Hasan, Amer ; Kinnell, Angela ; Brinkman, Sally

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: gender gaps;    primary education;    rural schools;    early childhood development;    cognitive skills;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7833
RP-ID  :  WPS7833

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper examines gender gaps incognitive and non-cognitive skills among a sample of morethan 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in ruralIndonesia. In terms of cognitive skills, the analysis findsevidence of gender gaps favoring girls at each age in testscores of language (0.158-0.252 standard deviations) andmathematics (0.155-0.243 standard deviations) in the earlyyears of primary school. Girls also perform significantlybetter than boys in non-cognitive skills, with higher scoreson the social competence (0.086-0.247 standard deviations)and emotional maturity domains (0.213-0.296 standarddeviations) of the Early Development Instrument, a findingconsistent with research from high-income countries.Decomposition analyses are used to investigate the extent towhich enrollment patterns in preschool and primary school aswell as parenting practices contribute to these gender gapsin cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Standarddecomposition approaches are extended to correct forselection on observables. The findings show that genderdifferences in enrollment patterns play a role in explaininggender gaps in test scores, while differences in parentingpractices do not. However, the relative contribution ofobserved factors to gender gaps depends on the availablequality of preschool services in the child’s village andwhether the outcome of interest is cognitive ornon-cognitive skills.