Boys are more motivated, while girls are more compassionate?

In Year 8, there are large gender differences related to motivation and compassion, which are in turn linked to how psychologically resilient the pupils are. At least when the pupils assess themselves.

“Several factors influence motivation. We wanted to find out how lower-secondary pupils feel they are doing when it comes to these factors,” said PhD Student Vegard Renolen Litlabø at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.

A total of 7260 Year 8 pupils took the questionnaire, with slightly more girls than boys participating.

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Multiple forms of motivation

This illustration shows the different factors that the students were asked about. Illustration: NTNU SHOW MORE

The pupils were asked to assess themselves in relation to:

• Passion
  • Grit
  • Growth mindset – the belief that you improve through effort
  • Self-efficacy – the belief that you can succeed at something
  • Courage
  • School well-being
  • School safety
  • Compassion (for others, for oneself, and received from others)
  • Flourishing – which is about fulfilling your potential

The gender differences were generally fairly small for all the motivational factors except ‘compassion for others’, but one striking characteristic stands out.

Boys score highest on motivation

“Boys reported significantly higher levels of passion, grit, growth mindset, self-efficacy, courage, school well-being and school safety. They also reported higher levels of compassion for themselves,” said Litlabø.

The girls generally rate themselves highest on two things:

“Girls scored significantly higher on compassion for others. They also believe that they receive more compassion from others.”

In terms of flourishing, which refers to how well you are able to fulfil your potential, there was no significant gender difference in the scores.

So, it looks like it is almost a clean sweep for the boys. However, the picture is a bit more complicated than that. The researchers also looked at correlations between the various factors.

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Some stronger correlations among the girls

“Boys scored higher on all factors related to motivation. This is quite clear when we look at the factors individually. Girls, however, showed stronger correlations between self-efficacy, grit and growth mindset.”

Vegard Renolen Litlabø. Photo: Magnus Mjømen SHOW MORE

This means we need to consider the various factors collectively. Girls show a stronger correlation between believing they can succeed, having grit, and believing they will improve through effort.

“Girls are also more strongly influenced by how safe they feel at school. They then thrive more and score even higher than boys on the compassion they receive from others and show towards themselves. But it is not the case that boys are inherently lacking in compassion – they seem to be more compassionate towards others when they receive more compassion or show greater compassion for themselves,” explained Litlabø.

This may be a sign that boys have a greater need for socio-emotional learning, i.e. developing skills to understand and manage emotions, build positive relationships, make responsible decisions and set goals.

Girls should be kinder to themselves, boys more compassionate

So, what does this mean for the pupils themselves and for the people around them who want to improve the pupils’ well-being?

According to the researchers, girls in particular could benefit from increased self-efficacy and compassion towards themselves.

Perhaps girls simply need to be encouraged to believe more in their own abilities, be kinder to themselves and treat themselves better.

Many boys already have plenty of this, but they may need something different.

“Boys can benefit from developing greater compassion for others. This will not only benefit the boys themselves, but the entire school environment,” concluded Litlabø.

More research is needed to investigate how these patterns develop over time.

Reference:
Renolen Litlabø, Vegard; Haga, Monika; Richter, Isabell; Sigmundsson, Hermundur. ‘Exploring Gender Differences in Norwegian Eighth-Grade Students: The Role of Passion, Grit, Growth Mindset, Self-Efficacy, Compassion, Courage and Well-Being’. Front. Educ., 14 January 2026. Sec. Psychology in Education Volume 10 – 2025 https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1703538