The role of psychological gender in the computer-related attitudes and attainments of primary school children (aged 6-11)

As computing has become an increasingly male-dominated activity, feminine (sex typed) individuals would be predicted by psychological gender theory to underperform upon computer-related tasks. This is particulary significant as computer-based tuition now forms a compulsory component of the National Curriculum within primary education (ages 5–11) within the UK. The present study examines the computer-related attitudes and attainments of 48 primary (6–11 years) school-aged children. The results show boys hold more favourable attitudes towards computers than girls, a difference that becomes non-significant when controlling for psychological gender. Additionally, masculine sex typed schoolchildren hold more positive attitudes and achieve higher levels of computer-related attainment than feminine sex typed schoolchildren.