Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia

This paper examines gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills among a sample of more than 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in rural Indonesia. In terms of cognitive skills, the analysis finds evidence of gender gaps favoring girl...

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Main Authors:	Nakajima, Nozomi, Jung, Haeil, Pradhan, Menno, Hasan, Amer, Kinnell, Angela, Brinkman, Sally
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:	gender gaps primary education rural schools early childhood development cognitive skills non-cognitive skills
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26816715/gender-gaps-cognitive-non-cognitive-skills-early-primary-grades-evidence-rural-indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25149

id	okr-10986-25149
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-251492021-04-23T14:04:29Z Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia Nakajima, Nozomi Jung, Haeil Pradhan, Menno Hasan, Amer Kinnell, Angela Brinkman, Sally gender gaps primary education rural schools early childhood development cognitive skills non-cognitive skills This paper examines gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills among a sample of more than 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in rural Indonesia. In terms of cognitive skills, the analysis finds evidence of gender gaps favoring girls at each age in test scores of language (0.158-0.252 standard deviations) and mathematics (0.155-0.243 standard deviations) in the early years of primary school. Girls also perform significantly better than boys in non-cognitive skills, with higher scores on the social competence (0.086-0.247 standard deviations) and emotional maturity domains (0.213-0.296 standard deviations) of the Early Development Instrument, a finding consistent with research from high-income countries. Decomposition analyses are used to investigate the extent to which enrollment patterns in preschool and primary school as well as parenting practices contribute to these gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Standard decomposition approaches are extended to correct for selection on observables. The findings show that gender differences in enrollment patterns play a role in explaining gender gaps in test scores, while differences in parenting practices do not. However, the relative contribution of observed factors to gender gaps depends on the available quality of preschool services in the child’s village and whether the outcome of interest is cognitive or non-cognitive skills. 2016-10-13T19:27:49Z 2016-10-13T19:27:49Z 2016-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26816715/gender-gaps-cognitive-non-cognitive-skills-early-primary-grades-evidence-rural-indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25149 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7833 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper East Asia and Pacific Indonesia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	gender gaps primary education rural schools early childhood development cognitive skills non-cognitive skills
spellingShingle	gender gaps primary education rural schools early childhood development cognitive skills non-cognitive skills Nakajima, Nozomi Jung, Haeil Pradhan, Menno Hasan, Amer Kinnell, Angela Brinkman, Sally Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
geographic_facet	East Asia and Pacific Indonesia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7833
description	This paper examines gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills among a sample of more than 10,000 children between the ages of 6 and 9 in rural Indonesia. In terms of cognitive skills, the analysis finds evidence of gender gaps favoring girls at each age in test scores of language (0.158-0.252 standard deviations) and mathematics (0.155-0.243 standard deviations) in the early years of primary school. Girls also perform significantly better than boys in non-cognitive skills, with higher scores on the social competence (0.086-0.247 standard deviations) and emotional maturity domains (0.213-0.296 standard deviations) of the Early Development Instrument, a finding consistent with research from high-income countries. Decomposition analyses are used to investigate the extent to which enrollment patterns in preschool and primary school as well as parenting practices contribute to these gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Standard decomposition approaches are extended to correct for selection on observables. The findings show that gender differences in enrollment patterns play a role in explaining gender gaps in test scores, while differences in parenting practices do not. However, the relative contribution of observed factors to gender gaps depends on the available quality of preschool services in the child’s village and whether the outcome of interest is cognitive or non-cognitive skills.
format	Working Paper
author	Nakajima, Nozomi Jung, Haeil Pradhan, Menno Hasan, Amer Kinnell, Angela Brinkman, Sally
author_facet	Nakajima, Nozomi Jung, Haeil Pradhan, Menno Hasan, Amer Kinnell, Angela Brinkman, Sally
author_sort	Nakajima, Nozomi
title	Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
title_short	Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
title_full	Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
title_fullStr	Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
title_full_unstemmed	Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia
title_sort	gender gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive skills in early primary grades : evidence from rural indonesia
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2016
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/09/26816715/gender-gaps-cognitive-non-cognitive-skills-early-primary-grades-evidence-rural-indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25149
_version_	1764458674704613376

Gender Gaps in Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in Early Primary Grades : Evidence from Rural Indonesia

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