Abstract
Background
Adolescents’ gender attitudes shape not only their personal identities and opportunities but also the wider social systems they enter as future workers, citizens, and decision-makers. Despite increasing academic attention, no comprehensive synthesis has examined how these attitudes have been studied quantitatively over the past two decades.
Objective
This review examines how adolescent gender attitudes have been studied using quantitative methods, focusing on the geographical scope, research aims, analytical strategies, and measurement practices.
Methods
A systematic review of 134 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2024 was conducted, based on searches in Web of Science and Scopus.
Results
Findings indicate a substantial increase in publication output, alongside pronounced regional imbalances in the English language quantitative literature. Studies are predominantly drawn from Asia, North America, and Europe, with fewer contributions from Global South contexts, where relevant research may be published in other languages or regional outlets. In addition, the field relies heavily on established measurement instruments and shows limited theoretical engagement, while school and intersectional contexts remain underexamined, limiting the ability of existing evidence to inform policy and systemic change.
Conclusions
Future research requires updated and context-sensitive measures, stronger theoretical grounding, and methodological innovation. Such advances are essential to support inclusive education, sustainable development, and effective management of gender equity in social systems.
Adolescents’ gender attitudes shape not only their personal identities and opportunities but also the wider social systems they enter as future workers, citizens, and decision-makers. Despite increasing academic attention, no comprehensive synthesis has examined how these attitudes have been studied quantitatively over the past two decades.
Objective
This review examines how adolescent gender attitudes have been studied using quantitative methods, focusing on the geographical scope, research aims, analytical strategies, and measurement practices.
Methods
A systematic review of 134 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2024 was conducted, based on searches in Web of Science and Scopus.
Results
Findings indicate a substantial increase in publication output, alongside pronounced regional imbalances in the English language quantitative literature. Studies are predominantly drawn from Asia, North America, and Europe, with fewer contributions from Global South contexts, where relevant research may be published in other languages or regional outlets. In addition, the field relies heavily on established measurement instruments and shows limited theoretical engagement, while school and intersectional contexts remain underexamined, limiting the ability of existing evidence to inform policy and systemic change.
Conclusions
Future research requires updated and context-sensitive measures, stronger theoretical grounding, and methodological innovation. Such advances are essential to support inclusive education, sustainable development, and effective management of gender equity in social systems.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Human Systems Management |
| Early online date | 12 Jan 2026 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 12 Jan 2026 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Data Availability Statement
The data file with the analysed categories can be found in this link: https://figshare.com/s/fdc005b49521dd1c4b18Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Natalia López-Hornickel wants to acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) in developing her research, including this article. Grant number: 2573257.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Economic and Social Research Council | 2573257 |
Keywords
- adolescence
- gender equality
- quantitative methodologies
- review
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Business,Management and Accounting
