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The assessment of intrasexual profiles among adolescent boys and girls: above and beyond the search for challenging profiles

Ellen Huyge (UGent) , Dimitri Van Maele (UGent) and Mieke Van Houtte (UGent)
Author
Organization
Abstract
Boys and girls rejecting school as a matter of gendered popular identities, are dominating the qualitative sociological literature on secondary education. Although many of these studies depict a colourful image of such “laddish” or “antischoolish” student profiles, the thematic literature lacks large-scale evidence and a focus on profiles other than antischoolish ones. Using quantitative methodological techniques, this article attempts to meet both gaps. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed four student profiles for each sex among 6234 students (ages 13–14) from 58 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). These different student masculinities and femininities varied along five gender-related and popularity dimensions such as gender role ideology, homonegativity and social integration at school. The cluster solution introducing “golden boys and girls, macho boys and babes” among others, was externally validated by relating these profiles to academic futility as an indicator of “antischoolishness”. This additional analysis showed that the gender profiles which are theoretically assumed to be more antischoolish, had significantly stronger feelings of futility than those which are assumed to have more positive school orientations. Whereas the literature on antischoolish students claims the connection between gender and school orientation, these orientations are not solely the result of gendered (popularity seeking) identities. Ethnicity, sexual orientation and social class are also important classificatory principles operating in making different student profiles. An intersectional exploration of the availability of gendered student profiles according to these background features, yielded interesting insights. This article argues the need to abandon gender-dichotomies and adopt a focus on intrasexual differences.
Keywords
student femininities, student masculinities, hierarchical clusteranalysis, gender

Citation

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:

MLA
Huyge, Ellen, et al. “The Assessment of Intrasexual Profiles among Adolescent Boys and Girls: Above and beyond the Search for Challenging Profiles.” 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts, 2015.
APA
Huyge, E., Van Maele, D., & Van Houtte, M. (2015). The assessment of intrasexual profiles among adolescent boys and girls: above and beyond the search for challenging profiles. 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts. Presented at the 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, London, UK.
Chicago author-date
Huyge, Ellen, Dimitri Van Maele, and Mieke Van Houtte. 2015. “The Assessment of Intrasexual Profiles among Adolescent Boys and Girls: Above and beyond the Search for Challenging Profiles.” In 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Huyge, Ellen, Dimitri Van Maele, and Mieke Van Houtte. 2015. “The Assessment of Intrasexual Profiles among Adolescent Boys and Girls: Above and beyond the Search for Challenging Profiles.” In 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts.
Vancouver
1.
Huyge E, Van Maele D, Van Houtte M. The assessment of intrasexual profiles among adolescent boys and girls: above and beyond the search for challenging profiles. In: 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts. 2015.
IEEE
[1]
E. Huyge, D. Van Maele, and M. Van Houtte, “The assessment of intrasexual profiles among adolescent boys and girls: above and beyond the search for challenging profiles,” in 10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts, London, UK, 2015.
@inproceedings{6851523,
  abstract     = {{Boys and girls rejecting school as a matter of gendered popular identities, are dominating the qualitative sociological literature on secondary education. Although many of these studies depict a colourful image of such “laddish” or “antischoolish” student profiles, the thematic literature lacks large-scale evidence and a focus on profiles other than antischoolish ones. Using quantitative methodological techniques, this article attempts to meet both gaps. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed four student profiles for each sex among 6234 students (ages 13–14) from 58 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). These different student masculinities and femininities varied along five gender-related and popularity dimensions such as gender role ideology, homonegativity and social integration at school. The cluster solution introducing “golden boys and girls, macho boys and babes” among others, was externally validated by relating these profiles to academic futility as an indicator of “antischoolishness”. This additional analysis showed that the gender profiles which are theoretically assumed to be more antischoolish, had significantly stronger feelings of futility than those which are assumed to have more positive school orientations. Whereas the literature on antischoolish students claims the connection between gender and school orientation, these orientations are not solely the result of gendered (popularity seeking) identities. Ethnicity, sexual orientation and social class are also important classificatory principles operating in making different student profiles. An intersectional exploration of the availability of gendered student profiles according to these background features, yielded interesting insights. This article argues the need to abandon gender-dichotomies and adopt a focus on intrasexual differences.}},
  author       = {{Huyge, Ellen and Van Maele, Dimitri and Van Houtte, Mieke}},
  booktitle    = {{10th Biennial Conference of the Gender and Education Association, Abstracts}},
  keywords     = {{student femininities,student masculinities,hierarchical clusteranalysis,gender}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{London, UK}},
  title        = {{The assessment of intrasexual profiles among adolescent boys and girls: above and beyond the search for challenging profiles}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}