Boys keep swinging? Sex composition of the school and pressure for gender conformity.

This study assesses the effect of secondary schools’ sex-composition on boys’ and girls’ felt pressure for gender-conformity. Whereas this pressure affects adolescents’ well-being, little large-scale research examines how school features influence students’ felt gender-conformity pressure. Multilevel analyses are conducted on representative Flemish data of 2688 boys and 2430 girls in 57 schools, gathered at the beginning of school-year 2012/13 and the end of 2013/14. First grade students (7th grade in US) completed a questionnaire, with a follow-up at the end of the second grade. When estimating the effects of school sex-composition on gender-conformity pressure at time 2, the gender-conformity pressure at time 1 is accounted for, establishing a genuine school effect. For girls, no effects of the school’s sex-composition are found. Boys in schools with more girls display lower levels of pressure for gender-conformity at the start of secondary education. Accounting for gender-conformity pressure at time 1, the felt pressure at time 2 increases with the proportion of girls, indicating that boys forming a real numerical minority at school, report more growth in gender-conformity pressure. This effect is stronger for boys holding more traditional gender-role attitudes. Finally, levels of gender-conformity pressure are only slightly higher in schools with more boys.