Gender and its contribution to the prediction of cognitive abilities at 5 years

Gender-related differences in the prediction of five year-olds' cognitive a bilities from measures of distal environment, proximal environment and infa nt test scores were examined in a random sample of 93 boys and 90 girls. Di stal environmental data included maternal IQ, maternal and paternal educati on. Proximal environmental data included two variables derived from the Hom e Screening Questionnaire: the Home Questions and the Toy Checklist. The Ba yley MDI was administered at age 13 months, whereas WPPSI-R was used as cog nitive outcome measure at age 5 years. The relationship between paternal ed ucation and child IQ, and between proximal environmental variables and chil d IQ was significantly stronger for boys than for girls. The associations b etween proximal environment and IQ in boys, were accounted for by the dista l environmental variables. Bayley MDI correlated significantly higher with girls' IQ compared to boys' IQ. Findings are discussed in terms of parental gender-differentiated socialization processes.