THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND GENDER ON READING-ACHIEVEMENT - IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDIATRIC COUNSELING

The hypothesis that age of school entrance and gender interact to affe ct academic achievement was tested on three samples of children at the end of lst (n = 1215), 2nd (n = 1141), and 3rd grade (n = 1037). Mult iple regressions of age, gender, and their interaction on reading achi evement resulted in significant effects of age for each sample. Howeve r, these variables together accounted for less than 1% of the variabil ity in reading scores at each grade. There was a significant interacti on between age and gender for the 3rd grade sample. Separate gender an alyses of variance by age class revealed that girls who were 6 years o r older at the time of entrance achieved significantly lower than midd le-entrance-age or younger girls. Contrary to popular belief, there we re no significant age class effects for boys. These findings indicate that significantly more attention should be focused on the specific sk ills that children bring to the learning process than on their age and gender in assessing readiness. Implications for pediatric counseling are discussed.