Competent Girls and Problematic Boys?

Abstract

In this article, sex differences as they appear from a resource-oriented as opposed to a problem-oriented perspective are discussed. The data derive from two cross-sectional cohort studies and a sample of children referred to the helping services from roughly the same cohorts. The cohort children were 10 and 13 years old, and were in the fourth and seventh grade respectively. The cohorts came from a large eastern Norwegian municipality, consisting of about 500 children each. Data were collected from the children, their parents and teachers in questionnaire form. The referral study included 140 10- and 13-year-olds. The results portray the girls, particularly in the fourth grade, as the `competence winners', while the boys are most visible once the focus switches to problems and problem behaviour. This is in accordance with other, research-based findings. However, the sex differences were smaller from the children's own perspective than the adults', particularly the teachers'. A main concern in the discussion of these results is a `no win, no lose' perspective, pointing to areas of improvement for both sexes.