Status Characteristics and Ability Attributions in Hungarian School Classes

Abstract

We study how the status characteristics gender and ethnicity affect the abilities that adolescents attribute to each other in the Hungarian school context. For this, we derive predictions from status characteristics theory that we test by applying exponential random graph models to data collected among students in 27 school classes. By that, we contribute to the few existing studies of status characteristics in a school context, and we propose a novel approach to handle structural dependencies between individual ability attributions. Our results suggest that across classes, gender does not consistently affect ability attributions, while ethnicity does affect ability attributions. Roma students are on average perceived as less able than their Hungarian peers, even after controlling for the structural embeddedness of these perceptions.

Double Standards or Social Identity? The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Ability Perceptions in the Classroom

“…There is no clear evidence that educational tasks are considered either masculine or feminine. Grow et al (2016), for instance, found no significant gender differences in ability perceptions among Hungarian adolescents. Several other studies suggest, however, that boys are more likely to be perceived as competent in educational settings as well (e.g., Correll, 2001;Goddard Spear, 1984;Grunspan et al, 2016).…”

“…Friendship. Previous research showed that students are more likely to nominate their friends as clever than to nominate classmates who are not their friends (Grow et al, 2016). Moreover, Foschi (2000) proposed that positive and negative sentiments (e.g., like and dislike) can affect performance expectations and competence standards.…”

“…Perceptions of abilities that we operationalize as who is considered as clever by the classmates might be biased due to unfavorable stereotypes toward certain lower status social groups or because students perceive their in-group and out-group peers differently (Grow, Takács, & Pal, 2016). On one hand, at the beginning of early adolescence, most children have already learned about and believe in broadly held stereotypes (McKown & Weinstein, 2003).…”

“…Previous studies relied on students’ self-declared ethnicity for analyzing ethnic differences in ability perceptions (e.g., Grow et al, 2016). Ethnic self-identification and perceptions by others, however, often differ from each other (Boda & Néray, 2015; Kisfalusi, 2016; Messing, 2014; Telles & Lim, 1998), and ability perceptions probably depend more on how students perceive others than how these peers identify themselves.…”

“…We investigate ability perceptions among Roma and non-Roma Hungarian primary school students. Gender and ethnicity are relevant status characteristics in Hungary (Grow et al, 2016; Szalai, 2003). The Roma constitute a highly disadvantaged ethnic minority group, which has been living in Hungary for centuries, but experience separation and exclusion by the majority society (Kertesi & Kézdi, 2011).…”