The Role of Personality in Relation to Gender Differences in School Subject Choices in Pre-University Education

Boys and girls to some extent differ in personality characteristics while they also prefer different school subjects in secondary education. This study has attempted to unravel the relations among gender, personality, and students’ subject choices. The study was based on a sample of 1,740 9th grade pre-university students throughout the Netherlands (average age 15 years). We used the Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) of Hendriks, Hofstee, and De Raad (1999a) to measure the students’ personalities. The research questions were: (1) To what extent are students’ personality characteristics related to their subject choices in secondary education? (2) Do students’ personality characteristics mediate the gender – subject choice relation? And if yes, which personality characteristics are responsible for this? (3) Is the relation between personality characteristics and subject choices different for boys and girls? We found several associations between personality characteristics and students’ subject choices. Although the relationship between gender and students’ subject choices was slightly attenuated after the inclusion of the personality characteristics in the multinomial logistic regression analyses, gender remained an important predictor of the students’ choices. The personality factor Extraversion partially mediated the relation between gender and students’ choice of advanced mathematics, chemistry, and physics versus a more language and culturally-oriented set of school subjects. Furthermore, gender was found to moderate the relation between the personality factor Autonomy and students’ choice of advanced mathematics, chemistry, and physics versus a more language and culturally-oriented set of school courses.