Gender Gaps in School Grades: Resistance Behavior and Class Compositions in England, Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden

Gender differences in school grades remain poorly understood, especially the extent to which behavioral factors and classroom contexts contribute to these gaps. School resistance behavior, i.e. non-adherence to school norms and rules, rejection of authority, and defiance of educational goals through lack of effort, is more frequently observed among boys. This study examines whether such behavior could help to account for gender differences in school grades and that class-level gender composition may also factor in. Data are drawn from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), comprising 18,234 students (M age = 14.4, SD = 0.5; 50% female) in 886 classes across England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to examine gender gaps in language and mathematics grades. Controlling for cognitive and language ability and demographic characteristics, results show that gender gaps do not consistently favor girls; boys hold an advantage in mathematics. School resistance behavior strongly predicts grades and boys report higher levels of resistance behavior. However, including resistance behavior in the models does not meaningfully reduce the gender gap in grades, indicating that resistance functions as an independent correlate of grades rather than a mechanism explaining gender differences. Moreover, results show that girls are more strongly penalized for resistance behavior in some countries. This pattern is consistent with the interpretation that gender differences in the academic consequences of resistance behavior may offset the expected reduction in the gender gap that would arise from boys’ higher levels of resistance. There is no evidence that class gender composition relates to individual grades. These findings demonstrate that resistance behavior is an important correlate of grading outcomes, yet it does not explain gender gaps, highlighting the need for continued research into the mechanisms underlying gender differences in academic performance.