Relationship between gender and attention in younger school,aged children

The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between gender and success in attention assessment tasks in younger school-aged children. Fifty-two children participated in the study (46,2% of girls), aged between 7 and 11 years (expressed in months, M=106.9, SD=12.0) who attend I-IV grades of primary school. Direct assessment of attention was conducted using tasks for assessing the span, maintenance and selectivity of attention. These tasks are part of The Protocol for the Assessment of Cognitive Abilities. The analysis of the relationship between gender and overall score on attention assessment tasks revealed the existence of a statistically significant difference in the achievement (p = 0.043). Using two-way analysis of variance, it was determined that gender (p = 0.018) and age (p = 0.002) are statistically important factors of achievement on tasks assessing attention. Detailed analysis showed that the difference in the overall score is based on better results of girls on the selectivity of visual attention tasks, while the differences in mean values on the span tasks and attention maintenance are noticeable, but not statistically significantCilj ovog istraživanja su da se utvrdi odnos pola i uspešnosti na zadacima za procenu pažnje kod dece mlađeg školskog uzrasta. U istraživanju je učestvovalo pedeset dvoje ispitanika (46,2% devojčica), uzrasta 7-11 godina (izraženo u mesecima, AS=106, 9, SD=12,0), učenika I-IV raz- reda osnovne škole. Direktna procena pažnje sprovedena je primenom zadataka za procenu raspona, održavanja i selektivnosti pažnje koji pripadaju Protokolu za procenu kogni- tivnih sposobnosti. Analizom odnosa pola i ukupnog skora na zadacima za procenu pažnje utvrđeno je postojanje statistički značajne razlike u postignućima devojčica i deča- ka (p=0,043). Primenom dvofaktorske analize varijanse utvrđeno je da su pol (p=0,018) i uzrast (p=0,002) statistički značajni činioci postignuća na za- dacima za procenu pažnje. Detaljnijom analizom utvrđeno je da razlika u ukup- nom skoru počiva na boljim rezultatima devojčica na zadacima selektivno- sti vizuelne pažnje, dok su razlike srednjih vrednosti na zadacima raspona i održavanja pažnje uočljive, ali ne i statistički značajne