Boys improve their grades if they share class with girls

The years as a student are demanding, especially when we have to take compulsory training, and the The pressure to get good results can be exhausting for some kids, especially around the time of exams.

Although scientific studies have shown that some habits, such as practicing physical exercise or eating well, can increase school performance. Well then, a recent study has shown that boys who study in a classroom with many girls obtain better results.

Boys do better academically if there are girls in class

Few people would say that to improve boys' academic performance there should be a lot of girls in their class. Surely many think that more than helping them to be focused they could be a distraction. But this is not what science says, rather, according to research, boys perform better and get better grades if there are many girls in class.

Adolescence is a complicated stage, in which many changes take place, not only physical but also psychological. In this phase of the search for identity, many adolescents begin to relate to girls, since it is a key stage for the development of sexuality. And what connection does this have with academic results?

As surprising as it may seem, boys do better academically the higher the proportion of girls in the classroom. This research was carried out by a team of sociologists from the University of Radboud (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), and included a sample of 200,000 young people.

To obtain these results, the scientists analyzed reading tests from more than 8,000 secondary schools in different countries. The data obtained indicate that in those schools in which more than 60% of the students were girls, there seemed to be a better school environment and, as a consequence, boys obtained better results.

A study affirms that women nullify the rationality of men

According to the researchers, it would be this good school environment that causes boys to obtain better grades in classrooms where there are more girls. However, another investigation carried out only a few months, affirms that women annul the rationality of men, so the presence of girls in the classroom should have an effect contrary.

The study was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, and included 21 students from Zhejiang University in China. Participants viewed about 300 images in which there were women's faces. While half were physically attractive, the other half were not. The group had previously decided which women were attractive and which were not. Then, the participants had to distribute an amount of money between each image while their brain waves were measured.

Men were more generous with beautiful women, and in many cases unfairly. In situations of injustice, they took longer to decide. The brain wave results indicated that when the subjects had contact with the attractive women, the area of ​​reinforcement, which has to do with pleasure and reward, was activated.

• You can learn more about this brain region in our article: “Ventral Tegmental Area: Anatomy, Functions, and Disorders”

The relationship between sport and academic results

The results that confirm that boys get better grades if there are many women in their classroom may seem surprising. However, there are many variables that can cause good academic results for students, not only the presence of girls.

In this sense, a person's habits influence their academic performance and their grades. An example of this is physical exercise. And it is that practicing it not only influences the psychological well-being of individuals, but also improves memory, concentration and increases brain activity, as you can see in our article “The 10 psychological benefits of practicing physical exercise”.

And there are several investigations that have concluded that sport is beneficial to improve productivity in the classroom. A recent study also found that playing sports helps relieve anxiety and get better grades.

These conclusions were presented by the American College of Sports Medicine, and the research was conducted by Saginaw Valley State University (United States). United States), which analyzed the habits of 266 students from this institution and connected them with the results on the GPA scale, the average of the numerical scores used in the United States. Joined. This average ranges from 0.0 to 4.0.

Also in children and adolescents

The results showed that people who do physical exercise on a regular basis (be it fitness, running or yoga) obtain results higher than 0.4 points on this scale.

But these results affect not only college students, but also children and adolescents, according to others. studies, such as the one published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which included 5,000 boys and girls from the United Kingdom, Scotland and the United States Joined. For this study, their scores in mathematics, English and science when they were 11, 13 and 16 years old were taken into account. The more physically active children obtained better results in all three disciplines. Apparently, in the case of the boys, with only 17 minutes of daily physical exercise the results were already significant. In the case of girls, 12 minutes a day is enough.

• Related article: “Practicing physical exercise improves academic performance”