An Examination of the Importance of Gender and Sibling Characteristics on Academic Perceptions

The present study attempted to investigate whether age, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and sibling size were associated with the academic perceptions of children. A total of 735 children aged 10 to 13 were included. The study sample was drawn from The National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth, Statistics Canada Public Use File, which purports to be a representative sample of Canadian children. Academic perceptions were based on responses to four questions about how they feel about school, their academic goals, and how well they are doing in school. Age, SES, and sibling size and composition were not associated with academic perceptions (p>.05). Gender was associated with academic perceptions with females feeling more positively about school and having higher academic goals (p<.01). Females also reported higher overall academic perceptions compared to males (p<.05). The results of the study suggest that age, SES, and sibling composition are not important factors in understanding academic perceptions of early adolescents.