Researchers from the University of Valencia and the Catholic University of Valencia have proved a change in mentality towards gender stereotypes in sport in young men. A research with Secondary and Baccalaureate students has confirmed that, after a didactic intervention from a gender perspective approach, men, who started from a medium level of stereotypes, improved their degree of perception more than women, who started from low levels and maintained their vision.
The study, published by Jesús Díaz Frígola, Mario Alguacil Jiménez and Manel Reig i Giner in the journal Retos, aimed to know the attitudes of students regarding gender stereotypes in sport in order to subsequently compare them based on gender and the grade they were in. To do this, an intervention was carried out in the Physical Education classes of a secondary school in Catarroja. The study sample was 259 students from the ESO and 1st year of Baccalaureate, 58.14% female and 42.86% male, grouped into experimental and control groups in each grade.
Prior to the intervention, they took a test that showed that men initially have greater gender stereotypes than women, who have a low degree while men have a medium degree. Subsequently, the intervention was proposed where the control groups worked on less stereotyped sports, while the experimental groups of each course worked on a variety of content. The teachers approached the sessions from a gender perspective, with the aim of breaking stereotypes associated with certain sport practices and contributing to their reduction.
After the educational intervention, men obtained significant improvements in all dimensions: in attitudes related to cognitive aspects, in stereotypes integrated into society, as well as in the attitude shown towards transgression and affective attitudes. For their part, women, who already started from a low degree of stereotypes, only significantly improved their cognitive attitudes.
“Therefore, the intervention was effective in reducing stereotypical attitudes. However, no significant differences have been found depending on the type of content developed in the sessions, since both the experimental and control groups improved”, emphasise Jesús Díaz Frígola, Mario Alguacil Jiménez and Manel Reig i Giner. Furthermore, they point out that the role of teachers and the approach to classes from a gender perspective are a key element to reduce gender stereotypes related to sport.
Article reference: Díaz-Frígola, J., Alguacil, M., & Reig-Giner, M. (2024). Actitudes del alumnado de educación física en secundaria y 1.º de bachillerato ante los estereotipos de género en el deporte. Retos, 53, 250–261. https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v53.99055
