Do gender stereotype threats have a spillover effect on motor tasks among children? A mixed-model design investigation

Objectives

The stereotype threat effect has captivated social and sports psychology researchers for over two decades. However, many questions remain unanswered. This research was designed to explore the spillover effects of stereotype threat in motor tasks.

Design

A mixed model design with within-between-subjects was utilized, with soccer performance and throwing scores serving as the dependent variables.

Method

Forty-two 10-year-old girls without mental or physical disabilities participated in the study and were randomly assigned into two groups: stereotype threat (ST) and nullified stereotype threat (NST). After measuring baseline performance in throwing and soccer tasks, the participants in the ST group received soccer-based stereotype induction. Afterwards, they performed 20 trials of soccer shooting. Half an hour later, the children were asked to perform 10 throws with the non-dominant hand.

Results

Our results indicated that inducing soccer-based stereotypes towards girls led to underperformance in soccer, however, this negative effect did not spill over onto subsequent task (i.e., throwing) which was unrelated to the induced stereotype.

Conclusions

Our finding regarding the stereotype threat spillover effect is novel and provides more insight into the range of effects of stereotype threat within the motor domain. The findings encourage the researcher to practice caution regarding the generalizability of the stereotype threat spillover effect, especially in motor tasks.