Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Differences in Achievement?

Osborne, Jason W. (2001.) Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Difference in Achievement? Contemporary Educational Psychology, 26, 291-310.

This article goes over a test looking at the effects of anxiety related to race and gender on student achievement. The hypothesis: anxiety associated with race and gender would account for different levels of achievement. The study did confirm this in the ways of race as anxiety in students and performance was correlated with gaps in performance between Afro-Americans and whites, and Hispanics and whites. From my experience and from other studies this was a bit of an obvious revelation. The combination of lowered expectations and a sense of starting off on a lowered level tends to bare a dark weight on minority student’s minds. I felt as if I had to prove something, to overcome much more than just my circumstances. For students in positions like this, student achievement seems like that much higher of a obstacle to overcome.