Secondary school boys get lower grades than girls and this is partly due to the fact that their friends are more likely to misbehave at school. That is the conclusion of a research study conducted by educational sociologist Margriet van Hek. The fact that boys’ friends misbehave more often probably has to do with gender norms. "If boys play truant, are late or argue with teachers, it is more likely to be construed as ’cool’ than when girls do it."
The study shows that the more your friends misbehave, the lower your own grades drop. Overall, boys’ friends tend to misbehave more than girls’ friends. Van Hek analysed survey results from over 10,000 young people aged between 14 and 16 from the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Sweden. Using data from two repeated surveys, she was able to examine how the misbehaviour of their friends affected the school grades of 14-year-olds a year later. Specifically, she looked at what school grades boys and girls got for their national language and mathematics. For language in particular, boys get lower grades than girls in all four countries. Boys get slightly higher grades than girls in mathematics, but this lead seems to shrink between the ages of 14 and 15.
Misbehavior
"If your friends misbehave, you are more likely to do the same," the researcher says. ’And if you play truant more often, for example, you get lower grades. In this way, your friends’ misbehaviour indirectly affects your results. But there is also a more direct impact: the grades of young people who behave well themselves also suffer from their friends’ misbehaviour. For example because the teacher doesn’t get around to explaining the materials as a result of your friends messing around in class."
Popularity
It seems that traditional gender norms in schools have negative effects. "The fact that boys misbehave more has to do with the behaviour we expect from boys and girls. To become popular, boys have to be physical, not just accept authority and, above all, not do what girls are supposed to do: pay attention in class, do their best, or read, for example. These expectations are harmful: boys perform worse at school, have lower language skills, and are more likely to leave school without a qualification. As a result, they have worse job prospects. It is important that policymakers, school directors and teachers also become aware of this. It would help if we could create a school climate in which pupils felt completely free to make choices about their behaviour and interests, regardless of their gender.
Follow-up research could focus on collecting data on aspects such as traditional gender norms at school, or the extent to which pupils feel peer pressure to behave according to such norms. "This would give more direct insight into the mechanisms underlying my findings."
Literature referencevan Hek, M. (2025). Exploring pathways: How friends’ anti-academic behavior contributes to the gender gap in language and math grades. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility , 101042 , 101042.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2025.101042