Does an immigrant teacher help immigrant students cope with negative stereotypes? Preservice teachers' and school students' perceptions of teacher bias and motivational support, as well as stereotype threat effects on immigrant students' learning.

Can immigrant school students profit from an immigrant teacher sharing their minority background? We investigate preservice teachers' (Study 1; Mage = 26.29 years; 75.2% female) and school students' (Study 2; Mage = 14.88 years; 49.9% female) perceptions of a teacher as well as immigrant school students' learning gains (Study 2) by comparing four experimental video conditions in which a female teacher with a Turkish or German name instructs school students in a task while either saying that learning gains differed (stereotype activation) or did not differ (no stereotype activation) between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Study 1 shows that preservice teachers, regardless of their own cultural background, perceived the Turkish origin teacher as less biased, even when she voiced the stereotype, and as more motivationally supportive of school students in general than the German origin teacher. Study 2 shows that in contrast, among school students, the minority teacher was not perceived as less biased than the majority teacher. Rather, immigrant school students, in particular those with Turkish roots, were more concerned than students of the German majority that the teacher-irrespective of her background-was biased. Interestingly, these differences between students from different backgrounds disappeared when the teacher said that learning gains differed between immigrant and non-immigrant students. Immigrant school students of non-Turkish backgrounds, but not Turkish origin students suffered in their learning when instructed by the Turkish origin teacher who voiced the stereotype. We discuss implications for teacher recruitment.

Can I dismiss the stereotype - as my teacher did? Influence of stereotype activation and an immigrant teacher on student learning.

Lower vocabulary in German is repeatedly reported for students with Turkish migration background attending school in Germany. We investigated whether in students of Turkish descent (a) learning vocabulary is impaired when the teacher activates the negative stereotype that students with Turkish family language learn less well and (b) whether a Turkish-origin teacher, as an ingroup expert model, can mitigate negative effects of the activation of the stereotype. In an experimental study, Turkish- and German-origin students (N = 182) living in Germany worked individually on a tablet on a vocabulary learning task instructed by a teacher in a video tutorial who introduced herself with either a Turkish or German name. Before the task, the teacher either mentioned that students in general (no stereotype activation) or students who speak Turkish in their families (stereotype activation) often have difficulties acquiring new vocabulary. A multiple-group regression analysis showed that Turkish-origin students learned significantly more under stereotype activation with the Turkish-origin teacher than in all other conditions. Results suggest that students are particularly motivated to learn when the teacher represents their ingroup targeted by negative stereotypes and openly addresses potential difficulties students of the stigmatized ingroup may encounter. We discuss the findings in light of the literature on stereotype threat and on the role of ingroup expert models.

Corrigendum: Sources of male and female students' belonging uncertainty in the computer sciences.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01740.].

When Grades Are High but Self-Efficacy Is Low: Unpacking the Confidence Gap Between Girls and Boys in Mathematics.

Girls have much lower mathematics self-efficacy than boys, a likely contributor to the underrepresentation of women in STEM. To help explain this gender confidence gap, we examined predictors of mathematics self-efficacy in a sample of 1,007 9th graders aged 13-18 years (54.2% girls). Participants completed a standardized math test, after which they rated three indices of mastery: an affective component (state self-esteem), a meta-cognitive component (self-enhancement), and their prior math grade. Despite having similar grades, girls reported lower mathematics self-efficacy and state self-esteem, and were less likely than boys to self-enhance in terms of performance. Multilevel multiple-group regression analyses showed that the affective mastery component explained girls' self-efficacy while cognitive self-enhancement explained boys'. Yet, a chi-square test showed that both constructs were equally relevant in the prediction of girls' and boys' self-efficacy. Measures of interpersonal sources of self-efficacy were not predictive of self-efficacy after taking the other dimensions into account. Results suggest that boys are advantaged in their development of mathematics self-efficacy beliefs, partly due to more positive feelings and more cognitive self-enhancement following test situations.

Growing Together-Effects of a school-based intervention promoting positive self-beliefs and social integration in recently immigrated children.

We present a school-based intervention geared to foster the social integration of recently immigrated (RI) primary school children by creating repeated positive contact situations with classmates brought up in the receiving society. Coaches encouraged groups of tandems, consisting of one RI and one child brought up in Germany each, to engage in cooperative activities designed to strengthen positive self-beliefs and perception of equal status. In a quasi-experimental control-group design (N = 318), we compared the 30 children (12 RI) who participated in our intervention between pre-test and post-test with a reference group. Self-beliefs were measured via self-reports, social integration via sociometric peer-nominations. The reference group (n = 288 children) included all children who did not participate in the intervention between pre-test and post-test: (a) 12 children (7 RI) of a waiting control group and (b) all classmates of both the students of the intervention and the waiting control group. Post-test self-beliefs were more positive in children having participated in the intervention. The intervention did not affect social integration: Neither the number of classmates nominating a student nor the number of peers the respective student nominated increased. Possibly, the intervention initiated self-reinforcing processes which support social integration over longer time periods.

Sources of Male and Female Students' Belonging Uncertainty in the Computer Sciences.

Belonging uncertainty, defined as the general concern about the quality of one's social relationships in an academic setting, has been found to be an important determinant of academic achievement, and persistence. However, to date, only little research investigated the sources of belonging uncertainty. To address this research gap, we examined three potential sources of belonging uncertainty in a sample of undergraduate computer science students in Germany (N = 449) and focused on (a) perceived affective and academic exclusion by fellow students, (b) domain-specific academic self-efficacy beliefs, and (c) perception of one's individual performance potential compared to that of fellow students in the field. Perceived affective and academic exclusion by fellow students and domain-specific academic self-efficacy beliefs were significant predictors of female students' uncertainty about belonging in computer science. The perception of one's individual performance potential in comparison to that of fellow students, however, was a relevant predictor of both male and female students' belonging uncertainty in computer science. Our findings imply an expanded view of the theoretical concept of belonging uncertainty that goes beyond mere concerns of social connectedness.

Religiosity, Religious Fundamentalism, and Ambivalent Sexism Toward Girls and Women Among Adolescents and Young Adults Living in Germany.

The New Year's Eve 2015 mass sexual assaults in Germany led to a broader debate about whether the perpetrators, most of them self-identifying as Muslims, were encouraged to such acts by particularly sexist attitudes toward girls and women. Here, we argue that it is not the specific religious affiliation of individuals per se that predicts sexism. Rather it should be the extent to which they are involved in their religion, i.e., their religiosity and their endorsement of religious fundamentalism. In line with the theory of ambivalent sexism, we distinguish hostile and benevolent sexism, while controlling for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. In two Pilot Studies, we explored differences in ambivalent sexism (a) between male and female individuals of Muslim faith, Christian faith, Muslim faith, Christian faith, and no religious affiliation residing in Germany, while at the same time (b) differentiating between sexism directed toward girls and sexism directed toward women. In our Main Study, we tested the interrelations between religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and ambivalent sexism in our religious subsamples of male Christians, female Christians, male Muslims, and female Muslims using a multigroup multivariate moderated mediation analysis. In all three studies, Muslims were more religious, endorsed religious fundamentalism more strongly, and held stronger benevolent sexist beliefs toward girls and women as well as stronger hostile sexist beliefs toward women than Christians and non-religious participants. In our Main Study, with female Christians as the reference group, male Muslims' stronger benevolent and hostile sexist beliefs toward girls were mediated by religiosity and fundamentalism. Female Muslims' stronger endorsement of benevolent sexism toward girls could be explained by their higher level of fundamentalism. While our findings show that differences in ambivalent sexism between religious groups were partly due to different levels of religiosity and fundamentalism, they also suggest that there are factors other than those investigated in our studies responsible for male Muslims' particularly strong sexism. We discuss specific contents of Islamic religious teachings and honor beliefs as possible causes to be investigated further in future research.

Antecedents, Consequences, and Mechanisms: On the Longitudinal Interplay Between Academic Self-Enhancement and Psychological Adjustment.

We investigated the reciprocal associations between academic self-enhancement and key indicators of intra- and interpersonal adjustment as well as the role of self-esteem as a mediator. This longitudinal study involved three assessments in a sample of 709 German children and adolescents (Mage = 11.83; 54% female) over the course of one academic year. We assessed self-reported subjective well-being as an indicator of intrapersonal adjustment and peer-reported popularity as an indicator of interpersonal adjustment. We computed cross-lagged and longitudinal mediational analyses. Academic self-enhancement prospectively predicted high subsequent well-being and popularity. Vice versa, well-being and popularity prospectively predicted high subsequent levels of self-enhancement. High self-esteem mediated the longitudinal associations between self-enhancement and well-being in both directions, but not the links between self-enhancement and popularity. Self-enhancement and adjustment are bidirectionally linked: Self-enhancement entails intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits; at the same time, adjustment in both domains fosters self-enhancement. In terms of intrapersonal, but not interpersonal adjustment, self-esteem seems to serve as a linchpin, accounting for all longitudinal associations. Furthermore, we present evidence indicating that self-enhancement indicators that are based on difference scores (instead of residuals) are problematic and might have led to negatively biased results in the literature.