The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition

Table 1 Summary statistics by gender

Variables	Males	Females	Males-females
Child age	106.17	107.03	− 0.86**
Native	0.97	0.96	0.00
Aboriginal	0.02	0.03	− 0.01*
Low birth weight	0.06	0.07	−0.01**
Breastfeed	0.73	0.76	−0.03***
Mother age	38.83	39.31	−0.48***
Mother native	0.65	0.65	0.00
Mother NESB	0.20	0.19	0.01
Mother ESB	0.15	0.15	0.00
Mother has no qualification	0.27	0.27	0.00
Mother has a certificate	0.30	0.30	0.00
Mother has an advanced diploma	0.11	0.09	0.02***
Mother has bachelor degree	0.17	0.18	−0.01
Mother has graduate diploma	0.07	0.08	−0.01
Mother has postgraduate degree	0.07	0.08	−0.01
Mother’s weekly working hours	19.39	20.13	−0.73**
Home environment index	1.37	1.35	0.02
Out-of-home activity index	2.61	2.65	−0.04
Having a computer at home	0.93	0.94	−0.01
Public school	0.65	0.65	0.00
Catholic school	0.23	0.22	0.01
Other independent school	0.12	0.13	−0.01
Household size	4.61	4.57	0.04*
Number of siblings	1.63	1.60	0.03
Number of younger siblings	0.81	0.72	0.09***
Number of same age siblings	0.02	0.03	−0.01**
Living with both parents	0.82	0.82	0.00
Living in an owned home	0.77	0.78	−0.01
Household income	91.96	92.12	−0.16
Initial PPVT (s.d.)	−0.08	0.08	−0.16***
Initial WAI (s.d.)	−0.31	0.32	−0.64***

Notes: Statistics are calculated from all waves (pooled sample size: 8497 observations). Analysing each wave separately reveals similar patterns. Statistics are adjusted for sampling weights. Tests are performed on the significance of the difference between the sample mean for male and female students
Significance at the *10% level, **5% level, and ***1% level