Review of psychology, Vol. 21 No. 2, 2014.
Original scientific paper
Gender differences in general knowledge: Do residential status and the type of school matter?
Predrag Zarevski
; Deprtment of Psychology, Uviversity of Social Sciences and Humanities, Zagreb, Croatia
Marijana Kovač
; Depratment of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Krunoslav Matešić, Jr.
; Croatian Catholic University, Zagreb
Abstract
The goal of this study was to examine gender differences in general knowledge related to residential status and type of school. The study included 817 subjects aged 17 to 19 (455 female) of the third and fourth year of grammar (N = 422) and vocational schools (N = 395) in the Republic of Croatia, from the capital (Zagreb, N = 440) or from
the smaller cities (less than 50.000 inhabitants, N = 377). The new 110 item version of the General Information Test (GIT-2012) was used (αmales = .89, αfemales =.85). In accordance with previous studies, the results of this study showed better performance and greater variance of male participants in total score on the GIT-2012 compared to female participants. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that the strongest determinant of general knowledge
was type of school, then residential status, and the weakest predictor was gender. This result supports gender similarities hypothesis (Hyde, 2005) and has important implications for tertiary education in Croatia, suggesting that all students, regardless of gender, and grammar school students, regardless of residential status, have practically the same potential for further education.
Keywords
gender differences; general knowledge; general information; high school students; residential status
Hrčak ID:
147120
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2014.
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